Lex Anteinternet: President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (the Fair Housing Act).

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (the Fair Housing Act).

President Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

It was one of his hallmark achievements.

On this day, in 1968, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968 into law. The act prohibited discrimination in housing rentals and sales based on race, religion or national origin.

Prior to this bill such discrimination had been common. Indeed, restrictive covenants in deeds for entire subdivisions commonly did just that. One such example in Casper, Wyoming, which we would not normally think of in this context, prohibited the sale of houses to "Mongolians".

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Lex Anteinternet?

This blog has been around since 2009. In the very first post, we asked the question: "What the heck is this blog about?"

Our answer to the question was: "The intent of this blog is to try to explore and learn a few things about the practice of law prior to the current era. That is, prior to the internet, prior to easy roads, and the like. How did it work, how regional was it, how did lawyers perceive their roles, and how were they perceived?"

We also noted: "Part of the reason for this, quite frankly, has something to do with minor research for a very slow moving book."

All of this is still true, but the focus of the blog has changed somewhat. It now focuses on the era from 1890 to 1920 in general, rather than on the law and lawyers specifically, although that may be far from obvious. It's also become the location where we comment on anything we feel moved to comment on.

We hope you'll feel moved to comment as well. While we moderate every comment, so as to weed out Spam, we greatly appreciate the comments where they are offered, and hope to see more.

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