EVENT INFORMATION

3
May
1948

The Shelley family defeats judicial enforcement of racial housing covenants

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📅 3 May 1948 📍 United States

The Supreme Court held that courts could not enforce racially restrictive housing covenants. J. D. and Ethel Shelley’s legal struggle challenged the use of state power to exclude Black families from property ownership and neighbourhoods. Private discrimination continued, demonstrating that removing one legal mechanism did not dismantle the wider institutions producing segregated housing.

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People in this event

J. D. Shelley

Ethel Shelley

Organizations in this Event

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People