Racial Steering by Brooklyn Realtors

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- Press Releases
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- ee064426-bb92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b

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Press Releases, Volume 6. Racial Steering by Brooklyn Realtors, 1975. ee064426-bb92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/f2cb4a0f-e706-4dae-8222-74e1cfab8d1a/racial-steering-by-brooklyn-realtors. Accessed April 28, 2025.

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    a7 

OCTOBER 
ELEASE.=" Racial Steering, BrooBlyn Realtors 

Distrioution - release; PR Newswire: Basic Wire, Atlantic Seaboard 65 black press 
22 Brooklyn Weeklies and N.Y.Magazine, Village Voice Handdelivered: The New York Times Newsday Daily News 

Christian Science Monitor New York Post 
Wall Street Journal 
Amsterdam News 
Jet 

UPI 

AP 

Time & Newsweek ~ will not handle 



From: Norman Bloomfield 
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. 

10 Columbus Circle 
New York, New York 10019 

Telephone: 212 586-8397 

Contact: Melvyn R. Leventhal or 
Linda Greene 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

NEW YORK, N.Y., Oct. 17 - The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational 

Fund today filed suit against four major Brooklyn realtors, charging that 

the companies uniformly and consistently practice racial steering in the sale 

of private homes. The case, the first comprehensive action against New York 

realtors charging racial steering, was filed in the United States District Court 

for the Eastern District of New York. 

The suit alleges that the realtors' practice of steering black buyers 

to black neighborhoods and white purchasers to white neighborhoods has played 

a significant role in perpetuating racially segregated housing in Brooklyn. 

The Brooklyn realtors charged with discriminatory policies and practices 

aré Best Realty Co., Dwork and Korn Real Estate Company, Eisberg-Lenz Ltd., and 

Morris Sardell Realty Co. 

The case was filed following a study of major Brooklyn realtors 

initiated by the Prospect-Lefferts Garden Association, and is based largely on 

information supplied by "testers" posing as prospective purchasers. The study was 

conducted between March and June, 1975 to determine whether blacks and whites are 

treated differently when they seek available housing and present identical housing 

needsand income data. 

Based on the testers' findings and the experiences of plaintiffs 

to the action, the suit charges that a line has been drawn by the Brooklyn 

‘ 

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realtors along Avenue H, with white prospective purchasers given an opportunity 

to view and purchase available housing south of that line. Black purchasers, 

however, are only given an opportunity to view and purchase homes north of 

Avenue H and east of Flatbush Avenue. 

Commenting on the suit, Legal Defense Fund director-counsel, 

Jack Greenberg, said: "The tests reveal that a significant percentage of 

Brooklyn realtors maintain racially discriminatory practices and are preventing 

the development of stable, integrated, middle-class neighborhoods. In fact, 

the pattern of racial discrimination, which has helped create a dual housing 

market, is so uniform and consistent that we also have charged the defendants 

with illegal conspiracy." 

The suit, Monsonis v. Best Realty Co., seeks compensatory and punitive 

damages and injunctive relief on behalf of seven named plaintiffs and a class of 

all Brooklyn residents and black homeowners who have been injured by the real 

estate companies. As part of the relief, the plaintiffs are asking tthe court 

to require the realtors to establish an affirmative action sales policy to overcome 

the effects of their past discriminatory policy and assist in the development of 

integrated neighborhoods. Legal counsel for plaintiffs aze Linda Greene, Melvyn 

Leventhal, Peter Sherwood and Charles Williams of the Legal Defense Fund's staff. 

# # # 

NOTE TO EDITOR - The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund is a completely 

separate corganization, even though established by the NAACP in 1939. It has not 

been affiliated with the founding Association for more than 20 years. ‘The correct 

designation is NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., frequently shortened 

to Legal Defense Fund. The organization has a national staff and headquarters in New 

York City and works with 400 cooperating attorneys throughout the country.

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Racial Steering by Brooklyn Realtors

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