>Afterwards Labor leaders asked their rank and file members what had
>happened. Those who would speak said ( paraphrasing) "it was one thing
>to work side by side with blacks on the assembly line, but something
>entirely different, and not acceptable to live next door to blacks."
This doesn't apply to your story, but I was reading about the history of the city I'm living in. It's well-known for some school desegregation issues that made it front page news.
There are a bunch of local histories of various neighborhoods and I was reading one about a neighborhood that successfully fought back against the way real estate agents played people. I hadn't ever heard of this, but your story reminded me of this book. Basically, real estate agents would try to whip up fear of blacks moving in, suggesting that their house values would go down, so they better sell now, and fast, before it got worse. Apparently, they were banking on people selling off at low prices, and still being able to sell at decent prices.
This particular neighborhood got together and fought that shit on a number of levels: community newsletters, community consciousness raising and education, making sure the laws were enforced against real estate agents violating the law and local ordinances, etc.
Didn't something similar happen in NYC during the 80s.
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