The crucial rights act of 1964 omitted housing. Although its 1968 sequel forbad violating an individual's civil rights and crossing state lines to incite riot, it was called the Fair Housing Act and enforced by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

It barred discrimination in the sale, rental, advertising, and financing of houses, apartments, and real estate on the basis of race, gender, national origin, religion, or disability. As certain owners were exempted, the law applied probably to 80 percent of the national residential market. Its enforcement depended mainly on individuals who could take legal action. Few state and local governments strongly used it to reduce residential segregation and discriminatory conduct by individual sellers, lessors, banks, and realtors. Effective enforcement, proponents argued, would help eliminate the ghettoized conditions that fomented racial–ethnic violence and integrate more people of color into white suburban communities.