“Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy.”
– Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
During the last years of his life Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference helped to lead the Chicago Freedom Movement, a campaign that challenged discrimination in housing, education, and employment. Dr. King and his allies vigorously lobbied a recalcitrant Congress to pass the Fair Housing Act. One week after Dr. King’s assassination in 1968 and after uprisings in several American cities, Congress finally passed this historic legislation.
Many of the same issues and policies Dr. King and his allies challenged over 60 years ago are still relevant today: redlining; the racial wealth gap; limited economic opportunity and mobility; and inadequate and overpriced housing. Now, private equity firms are gobbling up rental housing and driving up the price, and landlords are charging burdensome rental housing junk fees and employing discriminatory AI-backed tenant screening programs, creating new barriers to safe and affordable housing.
The National Consumer Law Center remains firmly committed to Dr. King’s vision of a just economy that works for everyone, with access to safe and affordable housing, sustainable credit, and education and employment opportunities at its bedrock. We will continue to work together with diverse coalitions and our network of civil rights, legal services, housing advocates, and social justice partners to dismantle systemic racism and pursue equitable economic opportunity.
During a speech in Chicago in March 1966 Dr. King said, “What is needed is the power of the people organized in community groups and around action projects as a third force to bring to bear their power on the prevailing power elite. Only as this non-partisan moral force speaks its voice, can we be sure that a truly democratic government survives in our cities.”
Every day NCLC works to realize Dr. King’s vision and his call to organize for justice. We know this is not a fight that will be won quickly. But we remain steadfast in our commitment to combating discriminatory housing and financial practices and working toward economic fairness and justice for all people.
Odette Williamson
Director, Racial Justice and Equal Opportunity Project
National Consumer Law Center
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