Background on the Kennedy Park Homes Association, Inc. et al. v. The City of Lackawanna, New York et al.

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DEC z- 1970 

BACKGROUND 

KENNEDY PARK HOMES ASSOCIATION, INC, ET AL 
vs ° 

THE CITY OF LACKAWANNA, NEW YORK ET AL 

Attorneys for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Inc. (LDF) are 

awaiting decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second 

Circuit in a case involving efforts of a black citizens' organiza- 

tion in Lackawanna, New York to construct homes outside the city's 

black ghetto in an area almost exclusively white. 

As a result of the first court battle, the U.S. District 

Court in Buffalo handed down a decision favorable to LDF which 

ordered the city to take affirmative action to permit construction 

of the housing development. The City of Lackawanna now seeks a 

reversal of that ruling. 

If the LDF suit is successful, it would seriously hinder 

attempts of any local government to block construction of similar 

black-sponsored projects, and make it difficult -- if not impossible -- 

for local governments to defend laws and ordinances which have the 

effect of discriminating against minorities. 

The plaintiff, Kennedy Park Homes Association (KPHA) -- a 

non-profit housing corporation -= was organized early in 1968 by a 

group of concerned black citizens to alleviate the desperate housing 

conditions of the city's black minority, confined to a ghetto in 

the northern section of Lackawanna's First ward. 

(MORE) 

NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. | 10 Columbus Circle | New York, N.Y. 10019 | (212) 586-8397 

Jack Greenberg - Director-Counset Ho Rivers - President 



KENNEDY PARK HOMES 
V. LACKAWANNA, N.Y. -2- 

After several unsuccessful attempts to purchase city-owned 

land, the KPHA received a commitment to buy a 30-acre tract in the 

city's almost exclusively white Third ward owned by the Diocese of 

Buffalo. The group then secured initial approval of federal 

mortgage assistance for low and moderate income housing from the 

FHA. However, the project was halted when it met with municipal 

resistance, 

Lackawanna's City Council first acted to block the develop- 

ment in October 1968 when it ordered a moratorium on new subdivisions, 

rezoned the Diocesan land from residential to park and recreational 

uses exclusively, and directed city officials to acquire the property. 

In xresponse, the Diocese of Buffalo, and later the U.S. 

Justice Department, joined with the KPHA in a legal fight against 

the city. 

After litigation had begun, the City Council rescinded its 

park zoning and subdivision moratorium ordinances. However, the 

mayor refused t> approve Kennedy Park's application to use the 

municipal sewer system claiming it was inadequate to handle the 

additional sewage the new subdivision would create. 

During court hearings, LDF lawyers characterized the city's 

use of its sewer crisis as a "club" to defeat the black project, 

claiming that the problem has existed for years, and that no action 

was taken by the city to halt any previous construction or sub- 

division in the area, LDF lawyers further charged that while the 

city has been aware of steps it might take to alleviate the crisis 

-- the Chief Chemist of the Lackawanna Treatment Plant testified 

that he had been offering municipal authorities such suggestions 

since 1964 -- only one of the suggestions was acted upon, and only 

after the State of New york had threatened to cut off state aid. 

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KENNEDY PARK HOMES 
V. LACKAWANNA, N.Y. -3- 

LDF attorneys also claimed that, according to the city's 

Master Plan, the Kennedy Park site had never been intended for 

other than residential use and that in previous applications for 

federal assistance, the city has candidly admitted that it is 

segregated. 

Of the city's 28,717 residents, 2,693 or 9.4% are nonwhites. 

Of these, 98.9% reside in the First Ward and almost 3/4 of the 

black population there live in what has been described as the worst, 

most dilapidated and crowded housing in the entire city. 

A major reason for the current black thrust into traditionally 

all white areas, LDF lawyers further charge, is a direct result of 

past municipal injustice. The city had rezoned its black residential 

ghetto for industrial uses, and Bethlehem Steel's plant expansion to 

the northern part of the First Ward not only contributed to the 

unhealthy environment of that ghetto -- where the chances of con- 

tracting TB are now twice as great as in any other part of Lackawanna 

-- but has displaced blacks, most of whom have had to relocate in 

other cities because they are unwelcome in white areas of Lackawanna. 

Some of the lower court's findings were: 

-- That "the history of Lackawanna is that of a racially separate 

community;" that the city, in adopting the park rezoning and 

subdivision moratorium ordinances of October 1968 was acting 

in response to "the discriminatory sentiments of the community;" 

and that the city's actions were a "wilful contrivance" to 

discriminate against the city's blacks. 

-- That, under the Fourteenth Amendment, the result of the City's 

actions, whether or not racially motivated, placed an unfair 

burden on the black population, which the city cannot justify; 

and that the district court is obligated to issue a remedial 

order to eliminate the discriminatory effects of past municipal 

actions and assure the prevention of future discrimination. 

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ey 
Sore KENNEDY PARK HOMES 

V. LACKAWANNA, N.Y. 
=—A5 

-- That the city is enjoined from issuing any building permits in 

its Second and Third Wards which would add sanitary sewage to 

the city's system until Kennedy Park Homes Association is allowed 

to use the municipal sewer system. 

In filing its appeal to the Second Circuit, the city claims 

that the district court erred in finding acts of racial discrimina- 

tion in this case, and that it overstepped its jurisdiction in 

acting to eliminate the discriminatory effects of past municipal 

actions on current residential patterns in Lackawanna. 

LDF attorneys contend that the lower court's ruling of 

racial discrimination is correct and that the city's attempts to 

block KPHA building plans are in direct violation of the Equal 

Protection Clause of, the Fourteenth Amendment as well as the Fair 

Housing Act of 1968; that the district court is well within its 

bounds in acting to eliminate the effects of past municipal injustice 

on its black citizens and in ordering the city to act to end the 

critical housing and environmental problems of its poor, black 

citizens. 

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For further information contact 
Attorney Jeffry Mintz 
(212) 586-8397 

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