Civil rights movement

=== Fair housing movements, 1966–1968 ===
The first major blow against housing segregation in the era, the [[Rumford Fair Housing Act]], was passed in [[California]] in 1963. It was overturned by white California voters and real estate lobbyists the following year with [[California Proposition 14 (1964)|Proposition 14]], a move which helped precipitate the [[Watts riots]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b8MeAgAAQBAJ |title=American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland |first=Robert O. |last=Self |date=2005 |publisher=Princeton University Press |access-date=July 29, 2016 |via=Google Books |isbn=978-1-4008-4417-3}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=http://articles.latimes.com/2005/aug/11/local/la-me-watts11aug11 |title=Watts Riots, 40 Years Later |first1=Valerie |last1=Reitman |first2=Mitchell |last2=Landsberg |date=August 11, 2005 |access-date=July 29, 2016 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times}}</ref> In 1966, the [[Supreme Court of California|California Supreme Court]] invalidated Proposition 14 and reinstated the Rumford Fair Housing Act.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt0b69q1bw/entire_text/ |title=No on Proposition 14: California Fair Housing Initiative Collection |access-date=July 29, 2016}}</ref>

Working and organizing for [[fair housing]] laws became a major project of the movement over the next two years, with Martin Luther King Jr., James Bevel, and [[Al Raby]] leading the [[Chicago Freedom Movement]] around the issue in 1966. In the following year, Father [[James Groppi]] and the [[NAACP Youth Council]] also attracted national attention with a fair housing campaign in Milwaukee.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.blackthursday.uwosh.edu/milwaukee.html |title=Black Thursday |access-date=July 29, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=http://articles.latimes.com/1985-11-05/news/mn-4337_1_roman-catholic-priest |url-access=subscription |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200408181140/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-11-05-mn-4337-story.html |archive-date=April 8, 2020 |title=James Groppi, Ex-Priest, Civil Rights Activist, Dies |first=Burt A. |last=Folkart |date=November 5, 1985 |access-date=July 29, 2016 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Both movements faced violent resistance from white homeowners and legal opposition from conservative politicians.

The Fair Housing Bill was the most contentious civil rights legislation of the era. Senator [[Walter Mondale]], who advocated for the bill, noted that over successive years, it was the most [[filibuster]]ed legislation in U.S. history. It was opposed by most Northern and Southern senators, as well as the [[National Association of Real Estate Boards]]. A proposed "Civil Rights Act of 1966" had collapsed completely because of its fair housing provision.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.wiu.edu/cas/history/wihr/pdfs/MilesWIHRSp09.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141223193406/http://www.wiu.edu/cas/history/wihr/pdfs/MilesWIHRSp09.pdf |archive-date=2014-12-23 |url-status=live|author=Darren Miles |title=Everett Dirksen's Role in Civil Rights Legislation|journal=Western Illinois Historical Review|volume= I |date=Spring 2009}}</ref> Mondale commented that:

{{blockquote|quote=A lot of civil rights [legislation] was about making the South behave and taking the teeth from George Wallace, [but] this came right to the neighborhoods across the country. This was civil rights getting personal.<ref name="propublica.org">{{cite web |url=https://www.propublica.org/article/living-apart-how-the-government-betrayed-a-landmark-civil-rights-law |title=Living Apart: How the Government Betrayed a Landmark Civil Rights Law |first=Nikole |last=Hannah-Jones |date=June 25, 2015 |access-date=July 29, 2016}}</ref>}}