DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | Civil rights and race relations materials, 1957-1964 | What You Can Do About Racial Prejudice In Housing Page 24

Transcribe
Translate

Civil rights and race relations materials, 1957-1964

What You Can Do About Racial Prejudice In Housing Page 24

work of community education by working through the various churches and their ministers.
In any event, a Human Relations Committee should make an effort from the outset to reach the entire community. It should gather information and literature. It should reach through the churches to the entire church membership. It should work with, and encourage, other community organizations (Women's Clubs, Kiwanis, YMCA, etc.) in undertaking study projects of open housing. And it should coordinate the activities of these groups on a community-wide basis. Not the least of its activities should be the operation of a continuing public relations program through local newspapers, radio stations and other media in order to adequately publicize its own activities.
Political action is also vitally important. Many Human Relations Committees have been able to encourage the formation of quasi-official racial advisory groups within the framework of the local governments. These groups, sometimes called Mayor's Committees, act in an advisory capacity to the chief executive officer of the local governing body and as a liaison group between government and various interested groups in the community, including the Human Relations Committee itself.
The Human Relations Committee should make itself aware of the existence of any racial restrictive covenants in its area. These are written agreements between property owners that ban Negroes, Jews or other minorities from an area, sometimes directly and sometimes only by inference. Such covenants have been declared unenforceable by the Supreme Court and any property owner who wishes to violate a racial covenant by which he is bound may legally do so. Since the Supreme Court invalidated racial covenants, other kinds of restrictive agreements have been used by those intent on barring Negroes and other minorities. These include "club memberships" for members of a community, "buy back" agreements as well as unwritten, unspoken agreements between
24

Saving...

work of community education by working through the various churches and their ministers. In any event, a Human Relations Committee should make an effort from the outset to reach the entire community. It should gather information and literature. It should reach through the churches to the entire church membership. It should work with, and encourage, other community organizations (Women's Clubs, Kiwanis, YMCA, etc.) in undertaking study projects of open housing. And it should coordinate the activities of these groups on a community-wide basis. Not the least of its activities should be the operation of a continuing public relations program through local newspapers, radio stations and other media in order to adequately publicize its own activities. Political action is also vitally important. Many Human Relations Committees have been able to encourage the formation of quasi-official racial advisory groups within the framework of the local governments. These groups, sometimes called Mayor's Committees, act in an advisory capacity to the chief executive officer of the local governing body and as a liaison group between government and various interested groups in the community, including the Human Relations Committee itself. The Human Relations Committee should make itself aware of the existence of any racial restrictive covenants in its area. These are written agreements between property owners that ban Negroes, Jews or other minorities from an area, sometimes directly and sometimes only by inference. Such covenants have been declared unenforceable by the Supreme Court and any property owner who wishes to violate a racial covenant by which he is bound may legally do so. Since the Supreme Court invalidated racial covenants, other kinds of restrictive agreements have been used by those intent on barring Negroes and other minorities. These include "club memberships" for members of a community, "buy back" agreements as well as unwritten, unspoken agreements between 24