Covenants among real estate owners barring sale of their property to members of various racial and religious groups have “spread with epidemic speed throughout the land,” and if they are unchecked “the involuntary ghetto will soon be an established American institution,” Charles Abrams, special counsel to the Joint New York State Legislative Committee on Housing and Multiple Dwellings, warned at a luncheon sponsored by the New York Chapter of the American Jewish Committee today, at the Hotel Martinique.
Mr. Abrams, formerly counsel to the New York City Housing Authority and a visiting professor at the New School for Social Research, said that restrictive covenants are on the increase as the result of favorable decisions by the high courts of twelve states and of absence of clear decision by the United States Supreme Court. These have been construed as “a grant of judicial benediction to racial exclusion practices,” he stated.
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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.
