Court Upholds Recent Civil Rights Law

Yesterday the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, sitting in New York City, handed down the first court decision involving Title III of the Civil Rights Act of 1983. Titles I and II, the more controversial sections of the Act, were not involved in this decision.

Title III is the section of the 1983 Civil Rights Bill which places an interdiction on all residential neighborhoods which are not racially mixed in acceptable proportions. An acceptable neighborhood under the law is one in which the white inhabitants constitute between 60 per cent and 70 per cent of the total, and the Negro inhabitants constitute between 30 per cent and 40 per cent of the total number of inhabitants. Briefly, the law prohibits the sale of private, single-family dwellings in unmixed neighborhoods except to purchasers of that race which is “out-of-proportion.” Furthermore, if a member of the “out-of-proportion” race desires a particular house in a particular neighborhood, the owner cannot refuse an offer to buy ifheisa member of the opposite race and if the offer is within the price range established for that neighborhood by the Bureau of Private Dwellings of the Civil Rights Commission. Thus, if a neighborhood is 71 per cent white and 29 per cent Negro, a white home owner is prohibited from selling his house to anyone other than a Negro. On the other hand, a Negro desiring a home in that neighborhood can offer to purchase any house owned by a white person, and the owner cannot refuse to sell if the price meets the minimum price of the Bureau of Private Dwellings. Of course, Title III applies with equal force to predominantly Negro neighborhoods, and spokesmen for a number of rightwing extremist groups such as the Americans for Democratic Action are suggesting that Title III is directly responsible for the virtual disappearance of a real estate market in predominantly Negro residential areas.

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Carl A. Horne

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Yesterday the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, sitting in New York City, handed down the first court decision involving Title III of the Civil Rights Act of 1983. Titles I and II, the more controversial sections of the Act, were not involved in this decision.

Title III is the section of the 1983 Civil Rights Bill which places an interdiction on all residential neighborhoods which are not racially mixed in acceptable proportions. An acceptable neighborhood under the law is one in which the white inhabitants constitute between 60 per cent and 70 per cent of the total, and the Negro inhabitants constitute between 30 per cent and 40 per cent of the total number of inhabitants. Briefly, the law prohibits the sale of private, single-family dwellings in unmixed neighborhoods except to purchasers of that race which is “out-of-proportion.” Furthermore, if a member of the “out-of-proportion” race desires a particular house in a particular neighborhood, the owner cannot refuse an offer to buy ifheisa member of the opposite race and if the offer is within the price range established for that neighborhood by the Bureau of Private Dwellings of the Civil Rights Commission. Thus, if a neighborhood is 71 per cent white and 29 per cent Negro, a white home owner is prohibited from selling his house to anyone other than a Negro. On the other hand, a Negro desiring a home in that neighborhood can offer to purchase any house owned by a white person, and the owner cannot refuse to sell if the price meets the minimum price of the Bureau of Private Dwellings. Of course, Title III applies with equal force to predominantly Negro neighborhoods, and spokesmen for a number of rightwing extremist groups such as the Americans for Democratic Action are suggesting that Title III is directly responsible for the virtual disappearance of a real estate market in predominantly Negro residential areas.