Stanford Journal of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties - Call for Submissions

Dear Editors-in-Chief:

I am completing the manuscript below and thought you might be interested. Could you please be so kind to let me know?

Federalism, Civil Rights, and Housing:

The Evolving Role of State and Local Governments

Charles S. Bullock, III

Richard B. Russell Chair in Political Science

Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor

 Distinguished University Professor of Public and International Affairs

University of Georgia

Athens, GA 30602

csbullock57@hotmail.com

 

Charles M. Lamb

Research Professor

Department of Political Science

University at Buffalo, SUNY

Buffalo, NY 14260

clamb@buffalo.edu

 

Eric M. Wilk

Assistant Professor

Department of Political Science and International Affairs

University of North Georgia

Gainesville, GA 30566

ewilk@buffalo.edu

 

Keywords: state and local governments, civil rights enforcement, fair housing

Direct correspondence to Charles M. Lamb, Department of Political Science, University at Buffalo, SUNY, Buffalo, NY 14260

Abstract

Fair housing law is an overlooked example of cooperative federalism, which has evolved over time, and its history can be divided into four major developmental stages: a federal phase beginning with the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, a progressive state and local period extending from the 1920s to the late 1960s, a third phase led by the national government and characterized by the passage of landmark federal legislation, and a fourth period in which state and local civil rights agencies have become indispensable. State and local fair housing accomplishments in the second and fourth stages have been largely ignored, but this progress is directly relevant to combatting future discrimination. Finally, the fair housing movement has been evolutionary, and when one level of government has made little headway, another level has assisted in slowly nudging it along.

Sincerely, 

Charles Lamb