Lyndon Johnson and the Unexpected Campaign for the Fair Housing Act

• In Event: U.S. Public Policy

Abstract

The Fair Housing Act of 1968 often appears as one in a series of major statutes enacted during the heyday of civil rights movement mobilization and party realignment in the U.S. during the 1960s. However, its historical development differs in an important but under-explored way from earlier civil rights bills. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 followed long periods of sustained effort among liberal Democrats in Congress. The Fair Housing Act, on the other hand, arrived on the congressional agenda despite the efforts of many of these same liberal Democrats to avoid the issue, as a result of an unexpected and idiosyncratic decision by President Johnson. For much of the 1950s-60s, fair housing advocates’ national policymaking efforts were focused on demands for executive action rather than legislation, as a result of the perceived unpopularity of the issue among the northern white electorate. Despite these circumstances, President Johnson rejected demands for a new executive order and instead sent a fair housing bill to Congress in 1966. Many civil rights advocates initially worried that this was an empty promise designed to shirk responsibility, although they eventually mounted a lobbying campaign to support the president’s bill. This paper draws on archival evidence to examine Johnson’s decision and the fallout among White House officials, members of Congress, and advocates. This under-explored episode illustrates how policymakers sought to displace or diffuse responsibility for action on one of the most controversial issues of the day.

Author

• Kumar Ramanathan, University of Illinois Chicago