The Push for Fair Housing

The Push for Fair Housing. March Route for Fair Housing. 1937 , Starting in the 1920s, demand for all housing in Birmingham increased year after year as the population grew. Residential areas zoned for "Negroes,” however, remained the same. By the 1940s, surging Black demand and a postwar baby boom created a housing shortage, especially in neighborhoods where public housing projects had destroyed Black homes. In 1948 and 1949 alone, African Americans lost 1,200 dwellings, but public housing took in only a fraction of those who lost homes. Planners also refused to slow down the clearing and demolition of homes in Black neighborhoods to make way for new and "progressive" business developments. So Black Birmingham faced a housing crisis. , "Homeownership is the most important institution in making good citizens." , Sallie Russell , Smithfield resident who did not want to sell her home to Birmingham Public Housing officials in 1935., With Black-zoned neighborhoods full, middle-class African Americans with financial means searched for better housing along the edges of White-zoned Graymont and College Hills in Smithfield. Some Whites along Center Street feared these newcomers were too close to the color line and demanded that city officials enforce the racial zoning codes. Other Whites, who feared losing their property values and integrated schools, began to sell their homes and move out. Blacks moved in to take their place, but city zoning laws prevented them from gaining access to their homes in previously White-zoned areas. These African Americans turned to NAACP Attorney Arthur D. Shores for help., Lesson H4: Name some advantages to owning a home.