Even though the Supreme Court outlawed restrictive covenants in its 1948 Shelley v. Kraemer decision, African Americans still faced often-insurmountable hurdles when they attempted to buy homes in new suburbs. As the first African American baseball player in the major leagues, Jackie Robinson made history by crossing color lines. Yet even someone of Robinson’s fame and stature had difficulty buying a suburban home. In the following testimony before the United States Commission on Civil Rights, Robinson relates his experience and argues for change.

When my wife and I decided to move from St. Albans, Long Island [ca. 1956], we were put through the usual bag of tricks right in this State. At first we were told the house we were interested in had been sold just before we inquired, or we would be invited to make an offer, a sort of a sealed bid, and then we’d be told that offers higher than ours had been turned down. Then we tried buying houses on the spot for whatever price was asked. They handled this by telling us the house had been taken off the market. Once we met a broker who told us he would like to help us find a home, but his clients were against selling to Negroes. Whether or not we got a story with the refusal, the results were always the same. Because of these tactics, we began to look in Connecticut; and we finally were able to settle in Stamford due to the strong efforts of some very wonderful people there.

Now, this leads to a basic truth about ending segregation in housing, as in any other phase of our life: That is, Government regulations alone are not enough. Public housing operated on an open-occupancy basis by itself is not enough. True, we need both of these; but we also need positive action by individuals to spur bias-free, privately built housing.

I went to Washington about 10 times in recent years to confer with officials, seeking action which would grant Negroes some progress toward equal rights in housing. The officials have been very polite to me but, regardless of the reason, nothing has been done.

In the 25 years that the FHA [Federal Housing Administration] has been in existence a grand total of some 200,000 dwelling units available to Negroes have been built with FHA assistance. Meanwhile, builders have constructed a million units a year or better for quite a while. Now, 200,000 units may sound like quite a bit of housing, but it is a tiny fraction compared with the 25-year total of housing built with FHA aid. FHA is not necessarily at fault. It is just that hardly anyone has built private housing open to Negroes until very recently.

We use such words as “discrimination” and “equality,” but they don’t tell the story.

There is a builder in New York whose conscience was troubled about housing discrimination against Negroes. Nevertheless, he was afraid that if he would let just one Negro buy a home it would spoil his business success. So, with a guilty conscience, he stalled a Negro buyer for just about a year and a half. Things came to a head when the Negro broke into tears in the builder’s office and left. The builder said, “If he had waited just another minute, I would have sold him the house.” The builder now sells to Negroes, but he had to first feel some measure of the harm that he was working on another human being.

We know that for many charity begins at home. So do hate, hostility, and delinquency, especially when the home environment is a slum, lacking adequate space, lacking facilities, but not lacking for high rentals, while infested with insects and rodents. . . .

Because of discrimination in housing, the end result for many is mental and physical suffering, ofttimes personal tragedy, domestic difficulties, discouragement, a waste of human potential, and, finally, an abundance of community problems.

Source: U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Hearings before the United States Commission on Civil Rights: Housing, vol. 1, Hearings Held in New York, February 2–3, 1959 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1959), 271.