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Title: The Misunderstood Consequences of Shelley v. Kraemer Extended Abstract
Citation Type: Conference Paper
Publication Year: 2010
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Abstract: Shelley v. Kraemer (1948) is one of the most celebrated decisions in the history of theUnited States Supreme Court. By holding that neither federal nor state courts could enforce arestrictive covenant to evict a black homebuyer, the Court signaled its willingness to use theFourteenth Amendment to strike down even indirect governmental actions that fostered racialsegregation. No one questions the legal significance of Shelley; in legal circles, it is viewed as acritical precursor to Brown v. Board of Education (1954). But housing segregation scholars havetended to minimize Shelleys practical importance. Some have argued that Shelley was largelysuperfluous, because by the late 1940s restrictive covenants were often dismissed by the courtsor circumvented by real estate agents. Others have suggested that Shelley was ineffectivebecause blacks lacked the capacity to enforce their rights and because white neighborhoods andinstitutions had so many other methods available to stop black entry. Oddly enough, no one (toour knowledge) has ever undertaken an empirical examination of how Shelley changed thehousing opportunities of affected minorities blacks in particular, but Jews, Asians, andHispanics as well. In this paper, we attempt such an evaluation, and we find strong support forthe proposition that Shelley had a rather dramatic impact upon the housing opportunitiesavailable to blacks. Just as important, we find that this shift in opportunities changed thedynamics of black ghettos in ways that have never been understood, and which have important implications for basic debates about urban policy and the black underclass.
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Authors: Kucheva, Yana; Sander, Richard
Conference Name: Population Association of America
Publisher Location: Dallas, TX
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Other, Race and Ethnicity
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