Fair Housing Act redirects here. For the 1963 California law dealing with the same topic, see Rumford Fair Housing Act.

Civil Rights Act of 1968
Long title:	---
Introduced by:	---
Dates
Date passed:	1968 (U.S. House of Representatives) 1968 (U.S. Senate)
Date signed into law:	April 11, 1968
Amendments:	---
Related legislation:	---

On April 11, 1968, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (also known as CRA '68), which was meant as a follow-up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. While the Civil Rights Act of 1866 prohibited discrimination in housing, there were no federal enforcement provisions. The 1968 expanded on previous acts and prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin, sex, (and as amended) handicap and family status. It also provided protection for civil rights workers. Title VIII of the Act is also known as the Fair Housing Act (of 1968) .

Victims of discrimation may use both the 1968 act and the 1866 act (via section 1982) to seek redress. The 1968 act provides for federal solutions while the 1866 act provides for private solutions (i.e., civil suits).

Types of banned discrimination

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The Civil Right Act of 1968 prohibited the following forms of discrimination:

1. Refusal to sell or rent a dwelling to any person because of his race, color, religion or national origin

2. Discrimination against a person in the terms, conditions or privilege of the sale or rental of a dwelling.

3. Advertising the sale or rental of a dwelling indicating preference of discrimination based on race, color, religion or national origin.

4. Coercing, threatening, intimidating, or interfering with a person's enjoyment or exercise of housing rights based on discriminatory reasons or retaliating against a person or organization that aids or encourages the exercise or enjoyment of fair housing rights.

Passage of the bill

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The passage of the bill was largely spurred by the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. a week before.

Vote statistics (Senate):

• Passed 71-20
• Democrats: 42-17 (71.2% For, 28.8% Against)
• Republicans: 29-3 (90.6% For, 9.4% Against)

House:

• Passed 250-172
• Democrats: 150-88 (63% For, 37% Against)
• Republicans: 100-84 (54.3% For, 45.6% Against)

Subsequent legislative and judicial changes

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Beginning in 1980, Senator Orrin Hatch spoke in favor of rolling back provisions of the Fair Housing Act. Acting on his motion in 1988, Congress voted to weaken the ability of plaintiffs to prosecute cases of discriminatory treatment in housing. But the Fair Housing Act was also amended in 1988 to allow plaintiffs' attorneys to recover attorney's fees.

in the early 1990s, in Trouillon v. City of Hawthorne, the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund successfully challenged an urban renewal plan on the basis of race discrimination by bringing suit under the Fair Housing Act. Previous litigation under the Act had largely been limited to discrimination in buying or renting housing. The case was also one of the first to establish discrimination in a multi-racial context.

1968 in law | United States federal civil rights legislation | Great Society programs