Fair Housing Act Signed into Law
April 11, 1968 · 20th Century
Signed by President Lyndon Johnson on April 11, 1968 — one week after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. — the Fair Housing Act prohibited discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin, and sex. The final major legislative achievement of the civil rights era, it addressed the economic segregation that persisted even after legal desegregation. Its passage was directly accelerated by King's assassination and the urban uprisings that followed, transforming grief and outrage into the last great act of the Second Reconstruction.
Key Figures
Lyndon B. JohnsonMartin Luther King Jr.Walter Mondale
Locations
Washington, D.C.
Topics
civil rightssegregationUSAafrican american historydesegregationconstitutional amendmenthousing
Connected Events — 5 Connections
Completed legislative agenda begun by Civil Rights Act of 1964
Applied equal protection guarantees of Fourteenth Amendment Ratified
Addressed housing discrimination experienced by migrants of The Great Migration Begins
Assassination whose aftermath directly produced Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Exposed continued economic segregation despite 1992 Los Angeles Riots and Uprising
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