Legal Defense Fund Sues to End Akron Ohio Housing Bias
Press Release
April 7, 1965

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Press Releases, Volume 2. Legal Defense Fund Sues to End Akron Ohio Housing Bias, 1965. 2da487e0-b592-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/1251e8cb-d6de-40b9-aa98-550c5272569b/legal-defense-fund-sues-to-end-akron-ohio-housing-bias. Accessed April 19, 2025.
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10 Columbus Circle AD New York, N.¥. 10019 PX? JUdson 6-8397 \ NAACP Legal Defense and Educational F. und PRESS RELEASE President Dr. Allan Knight Chalmers a Ciecabers For Release WEDNESDAY, April 7, 1965 LEGAL DEFENSE FUND SUES TO END AKRON OHIO HOUSING BIAS Conspiracy of White Realtors Charged in Suit CLEVELAND, Ohio---Discriminatory practices of the 1,800 member Akron Area Board of Realtors were attacked in Federal District Court here today by attorneys of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. In the first suit of its kind, Legal Defense Fund lawyers asked that the Board be “permanently enjoined and restrained" because its members are operating in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Clayton Antitrust Act. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund was established by the NAACP in 1939 as a separate and independent civil rights legal agency. Legal Defense Fund attorneys assert that the realtors "have engaged in an unlawful combination and conspiracy in restraint of interstate trade and commerce." This “combination and conspiracy has continuously had as its purpose and objective the prevention of Negro persons from owning real property in parts of Akron occupied solely or primarily by white persons." To this end, the Realtors are charged with: v** Refusing their services to Negroes desirous of living in areas the Realtors have delineated as "white" neighborhoods; ** Quoting prices to Negroes far greater than those quoted to prospective white purchasers or renters of the same property; “** Falsely informing Negroes that whites would not sell to them; (more) Jesse DeVore, Jr., Director of Public Information—Night Number 212 Riverside 9-8487 Ss Legal Defense Fund Sues To =2+ April 7, 1965 End Akron Ohio Housing Bias ** Declining to list property where the owner requests an "open" listing; ** Refusing to show property to Negroes after purporting to accept it on an “open” basis; ** Misrepresenting to Negroes the reasons for failure to consummate a sale; { ** Excluding Negro real estate brokers from the advantages and opportunities associated weeh member= ship in the Akron Area Board of realtors. , The Legal Devense Fund suit comes at a moment when Fair Housing ordinance, passed last July by the City Council, is facing a test to see whether it remains valid, The ordinance, which banned "discrimination in housing on the basis of race," was purportedly repealed by a referendum in November. This referendum was supported and financed by Akron realtors. It amended the City Charter stating that Council ordinances which "regulate" property transactions on the basis of race, religion, or national origin must first be passed by the public, The validity of this amendment, and the issue of whether or not it repeals the July ordinance are at stake in a court case currently pending. Charged with conspiring to discriminate are 28 Akron zeald estate firms as well as the Akron Area Board itself, an organization which does not list a single Negro among its 1, 800-odd members’. *henal Defense Fund attorneys charge that Negroes are discriminated when: > ** Negro brokers have been denied benefits of member- s th ship on the Akron, thereby restraining the sale and rental of real property by Negroes; ** Negro persons have been discouraged from mcving to the Akron area because they have been unable,to buy or ane teily rent. (more) Legal Defense Fund Sues To -3- April 7, 1965 End Akron Ohio Housing Bias wei i ‘ % Among the plaintiffs on whose behalf the Legal Defense Fund filed the suit were a Negro Ph.D. who was denied housing listed "for sale or rent", and a white professor from a lily-white suburb who failed in his attempt to have his house listed with brokers on a non-discriminatory basis. The Legal Defense Fund complaint seeks to demonstrate that the real estate business ig in large measure interstate commerce and thus subject to the federal anti-trust laws, Filed along with the Legal Defense Fund complaint was a motion asking that the court order the Board and the real estate firms to submit all papers and records pertinent to Negro attempts to purchase or rent homes, all documents referring to the 1964 Ordinance and referendum, and many other records. Jack Greenberg, Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, led a group of lawyers including James M. Nabrit III, Leroy D. Clark and Sheila Rush of the Fund staff; Henry M. Aronson of Jackson, Mississippi; Jay Topkis of N.Y.; Jack Day of Cleveland; Norman Purnell and Bernard R, Roetzel of Akron. =30=