Finally, somebody takes the time to confirm what many of us had always suspected, that is was the law that prevented integration. I grew up one of the all black communities the author talked about. Made up of temporary housing left over the WW2. My Father a returning war vet, tried, again and again, to get a VA loan to get a house the only places where the houses were, the white communities where he watched white vets get their loans and move out years before. Finally my parents saved their money and checked out several places (By then fair housing was the law in California but it did nothing about federal law forbidding financing), they found a white owner not only willing to sell but loaned them part of the down payment (this was in the mid 60's, 20 years after the end of WW2). Not only did that owner catch flack but the other white neighbors were not happy with us moving in, one of whom was an officer...in the German army during the war(so an African-American vet can't move into a neighborhood that a former enemy can - just because he's white?).
We were "lucky" there was no violence, many neighbors just ostracized us, and a few wanted to buy us out. Other Black families who moved out found them all put into the same block. Imagine in the 60's in an era where there was no internet, faxes, bulletin boards, nor large realtors like Century 21. Realtors were all local, and territorial and yet they all decided to forgo competition and agreed to block place all the black families in one block where they can be "monitored".
Every time I hear someone spread that myth "Oh Black people don't want to move into white neighborhoods because they love being among their own" I straighten them out, African Americans never had a choice!
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