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Civil rights and race relations materials, 1957-1964

What You Can Do About Racial Prejudice In Housing Page 19

whites who already inhabit the community. Existing property values normally assure this. Having invested in a community, the Negro is just as anxious as his white neighbor to preserve the value of his investment.
The best way to uphold the prestige of any area is by making sure that zoning, sanitary, and housing regulations are rigorously enforced--not by barring Negro families.
Q: But isn't it just simply bad to have a mixed-up neighborhood of different kinds of people?
No. It's good.
What is bad in today's rapidly moving world is for adults and children to live in a community restricted to just one kind of people--religiously, racially, economically. Such a limited community restricts the cultural opportunities of its residents, cuts back their horizons, gives its children little chance to understand the world in which they live. It leaves them ill-prepared to understand life outside the community womb in which they were raised. And it breeds in them more fear...and more fearful prejudice...than that which led to their enclosed environment originally.
Americans in the 1960's are being asked to stand square and strong for freedom all around the world. The rest of the world is watching. Unless we stand for freedom at home, in our own cities, towns, neighborhoods--and in the house next door--we cannot speak for freedom anywhere. Discrimination, segregation and racial prejudice cannot be reconciled with freedom and moral world leadership.
The often expressed fears that integration will result in an increase in intermarriage are not supported by studies that have been done on this subject.[11] The rate of intermarriage appears to fluctuate in different parts of the country at different times, but it does not appear to be affected by integration in any predictable way. In some parts of the United States where there has been little or no segregation, intermarriage is rare. Since one
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whites who already inhabit the community. Existing property values normally assure this. Having invested in a community, the Negro is just as anxious as his white neighbor to preserve the value of his investment. The best way to uphold the prestige of any area is by making sure that zoning, sanitary, and housing regulations are rigorously enforced--not by barring Negro families. Q: But isn't it just simply bad to have a mixed-up neighborhood of different kinds of people? No. It's good. What is bad in today's rapidly moving world is for adults and children to live in a community restricted to just one kind of people--religiously, racially, economically. Such a limited community restricts the cultural opportunities of its residents, cuts back their horizons, gives its children little chance to understand the world in which they live. It leaves them ill-prepared to understand life outside the community womb in which they were raised. And it breeds in them more fear...and more fearful prejudice...than that which led to their enclosed environment originally. Americans in the 1960's are being asked to stand square and strong for freedom all around the world. The rest of the world is watching. Unless we stand for freedom at home, in our own cities, towns, neighborhoods--and in the house next door--we cannot speak for freedom anywhere. Discrimination, segregation and racial prejudice cannot be reconciled with freedom and moral world leadership. The often expressed fears that integration will result in an increase in intermarriage are not supported by studies that have been done on this subject.[11] The rate of intermarriage appears to fluctuate in different parts of the country at different times, but it does not appear to be affected by integration in any predictable way. In some parts of the United States where there has been little or no segregation, intermarriage is rare. Since one 19