Enacted as Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., the Fair Housing Act prohibited discrimination in the sale, rental and financing of housing on the basis of race, colour, religion and national origin, with sex added later. It outlawed the explicit practices, such as racial steering and discriminatory advertising, that had reinforced segregation. Enforcement was initially weak, and entrenched patterns of segregation proved durable. The act nonetheless established a federal legal framework against housing discrimination.
It made housing discrimination unlawful nationwide and provided the legal basis for later challenges to segregation and exclusionary practices.
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