Governor Edmund G. Brown placed his administration today behind the fight to prevent repeal of a law abolishing discrimination in the sale or rental of most housing in California. The Governor named a statewide committee of leading personalities to oppose passage of an initiative sponsored by the California Real Estate Association which would have the effect of repealing the Rumford Act passed in 1963 by the State Legislature. Among the 23 members of the committee are Rabbi Leonard I. Beerman of Los Angeles; and Benjamin H. Swig, of San Francisco, nationally known Jewish communal leader.
The Governor said the committee would start work immediately “to make it clear to the people of California that this initiative would destroy the most fundamental concept of our democratic system, equality before the law. ” He said that the initiative “would give anyone an absolute right to deny housing to another person because of his race or religion.” He called the realtors’ move one that would give “legal sanction to bigotry. “
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
