Lyndon B. Johnson
Fair Housing Act

The Fair Housing Act, a component of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, outlawed several forms of housing discrimination and effectively allowed many African Americans to move to the suburbs. Johnson submitted a bill to Congress in April 1966 that barred house owners from refusing to enter into agreements on the basis of race; the bill immediately garnered opposition from many of the Northerners who had supported the last two major civil rights bills. Though a version of the bill passed the House, it failed to win Senate approval, marking Johnson's first major legislative defeat. The law gained new impetus after the April 4, 1968, assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and the civil unrest across the country that followed. The bill passed Congress on April 10 and was quickly signed into law by Johnson.
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