42 years after passage of the Federal Fair Housing Act Arkansas enacted its substantially equivalent Fair Housing Act in 2001. The Arkansas Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of dwellings, and in other housing-related transactions, based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status (including children under the age of 18 living with parents of legal custodians, pregnant women, and people securing custody of children under the age of 18), and disability. Because April is National Fair Housing Month I thought it fitting to republish an opinion piece written about fair housing and the Ninth Annual Arkansas Fair Housing Conference at The Peabody Hotel (in downtown Little Rock), April 29-30, 2010.

“Did you know your family was run out of West Virginia,” asked my wife.

Apparently I was 3 maybe 4 years old and my new-to-America, Ghanaian parents decided to rent an apartment in a West Virginian community. I didn’t know that we lived in West Virginia. The only thing I remember about that time was an effigy of some sort burning at night in front of our apartment window. My parents, one of the few blacks in that particular community, feared for their lives and the safety of their budding brood so they left the state.

“So do you think what happened to your parents had anything to do with fair housing,” continued my wife.

Since becoming an investigator for the Arkansas Fair Housing Commission last year, I have been asked that question and told similar stories by a number of people. In fact, my mother recounted this disturbing tale to my wife as they tried to make sense of my new workbench.

What happened to my family and me back in the late 1960’s was in violation of the Fair Housing Act. Although the incident was never reported (which is fairly common even today), we were discriminated against, threatened and forced to move because of our race, color and possibly national origin.

The Federal Fair Housing Act, contained in Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibits discrimination in housing because of race, sex, color, religion, national origin, disability or familial status.

Since the enactment of this law, there have been a number of cases and presidential executive orders that have shaped this law. In 2001, the Arkansas General Assembly passed the Arkansas Fair Housing Act to assist in eradicating housing discrimination in Arkansas. The passage of the Arkansas Fair Housing Act provided Arkansas with fair housing, anti-discrimination legislation that is substantially equivalent to the federal law.

I am often asked if there is still a great need for a state agency to enforce the Fair Housing Act.

When asked this question I am reminded of a gentleman from Northwest Arkansas who attended last year’s fair housing conference. He exclaimed, “I didn’t know that you all existed. I have been sending complaints of discrimination in housing to HUD’s office in Texas.” To which Carol Johnson, director of the Arkansas Fair Housing commission replied, “We are here and have been enforcing the Fair Housing Act on behalf of the state of Arkansas for the past six years.” Just last year our office fielded over 300 allegations of discrimination in housing.

The Ninth Annual Arkansas Fair Housing conference (the state’s single fair housing education and outreach effort) will be held April 29-30 at The Peabody Hotel in Little Rock. It is free and open to the general public. Some of the luminaries in civil rights, housing, law, real estate, banking and public policy who will lead discussions on this fundamental right include: The U.S. Department of Justice, Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund, Arkansas Minority Health Commission, United States Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Consul General for the Marshall Islands, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, William H. Bowen School of Law, Center for Public Collaboration-Institute of Government, Islamic Center for Human Excellence, Auditor of State and Arkansas General Assembly.

I encourage everyone to come to the conference and explore what fair housing means (to you), learn more about this fundamental right and affirmatively further fair housing for all Arkansans.

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This article appeared in the April 7, 2010 issue of Sync Weekly and was written by Kwadjo Boaitey