On this day, the Baltimore City Council passed the first city ordinance in the United States mandating racial segregation in housing, requiring that Black and white residents live in separate neighborhoods. This law prohibited African Americans from moving into majority-white blocks, and vice versa.
This ordinance became a model for similar laws enacted in other cities including Norfolk, Richmond, Roanoke, Greensboro, St. Louis, Oklahoma City, Dallas, and Louisville. These ordinances marked the beginning of legally sanctioned residential segregation in American urban planning—a practice that would have lasting effects on housing, wealth, and opportunity in Black communities.
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