"Would you want your daughter to marry a realtor?" In 1964, Proposition 14 was on the California Ballot. The purpose was to overturn the Rumford Act, which prohibited discrimination in housing. The California Realtors Association supported Proposition 14, thinking homes would be harder to sell if neighborhoods became mixed, or perhaps that property values would fall if people began to move out of neighborhoods in large numbers. Proposition 14 passed by 65%, but was later declared unconstitutional by the California Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court. This is a button from the anti-14 campaign.
13 comments:
Very interesting pin. I'm embarrassed to call myself a Californian as I knew nothing about The Rumford Fair Housing Act or Prop 14. I obviously have a lot of catching up to do when it comes to important CA history. Where did you get this pin?
I've had it since back in 1964. Might have gotten it at a civil rights meeting or something. It's the kind of thing I would keep, just because of the offbeat message. Not that I wouldn't have kept it anyway!
I'm confused, but it's a cool bit of history.
Why confused, Petrea?
I knew nothing about this either! Mister E, you have the most interesting facts. (And pins.)
Tired last night. I couldn't tell at first what the effect was going to be and who was the jerk in the situation.
Good memory lane stuff. I wonder how completely all that has changed. Did the conversation just move behind thicker doors? ON the other hand, I see a fair amount of change for the better.
Quirky pin!!
I think it's changed a lot. Not 100%, I'm sure, but a lot. At least where I live, I don't think people would be concerned about race affecting property values. If you can afford a house, I don't think anyone cares who you are. I think people care how you act, but not the color of your skin.
I remember Proposition 14 and I'm pretty sure my parents voted for it (that made them jerks, Petrea). In the 70's my father told me that he admitted being conservative but that he was liberal on race. I asked him what he meant by being liberal and he responded that he felt that blacks should be able to live whereever they wanted to and should be able to compete equally for jobs. I pointed that wasn't liberal, that was the law. But in his mind, he had become liberal because he'd changed his beliefs and that he'd come a long way, which he had.
WV: hylotosi - multiple people with bad breath
What a story!
A friend of mine grew up in Torrance in the 60s. He was telling me that around this time Compton was undergoing a change. He recalls that one year a whole bunch of new kids showed up in this school, white kids just in from Compton. My friend said that although some realtors opposed fair housing legislation, others thrived on it, specializing in neighborhoods in flux. Some of them probably marketed by appealing to peoples' fears about their property values.
wasn't around during this blemish in CA history, but i'm sure realtors could have made a living off of blockbusting.
anecdote: when my parents were looking for a house in SP in the late '80s, there was one elderly homeowner in the Marengo neighborhood who told them that she "wasn't going to sell her home to immigrants." she was an anomaly (didn't encounter anyone else with that hard line) but it's hard to even imagine that happening now anywhere in LA County.
Wow, there's a whole lot behind that little button.
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