A real estate agent said a group denied her an opportunity to buy land in an Arkansas development because of her Jewish heritage and because she has a black husband and biracial children, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court.
The lawsuit was filed in Arkansas on behalf of Michelle Walker, a group called Return to the Land, the Ozarks chapter of the project and five officials whose owners say they must personally verify that applicants are white before they can be accepted. It said Back to the Land founders “explicitly sought to create an all-white community.”
The lawsuit also calls Back to the Land a white nationalist organization and says it violates federal and state Fair Housing and Civil Rights Acts.
“Its founders believed that white people were genetically superior to other races, advanced the idea that Jews were participating in a conspiracy to exterminate white people, and advocated segregating white communities to create an independent all-white nation that would help avoid ‘white genocide,'” the lawsuit states.
For decades, blacks and other minorities have been restricted from buying or renting homes in certain neighborhoods or areas because of racial covenants in mortgages and leases. Potential homebuyers also face red lines that deny them mortgages and loans based on race.
Walker, a real estate agent who lives in St. Louis, applied last year to buy land in Ravenden, Arkansas, because the price of land in the town was below market value. Ravenden is located approximately 150 miles (241 kilometers) northeast of Little Rock and south of the Missouri state line.
During the application process, she was asked questions about her ancestry, religion and family, the lawsuit states.
Walker is white and belongs to the Christian Church. Her Jewish ancestry belongs to her mother’s side.
She is represented in the lawsuit by the law firm Relman Colfax, the Legal Defense Fund and Arkansas Legal Aid.
Return to Land did not respond to an email Wednesday from The Associated Press seeking comment on the lawsuit.
Back to the Land promotes itself on its website as a private membership association “for individuals and families with traditional views and shared continental ancestry.” Return to the Land said it has chapters across the United States in addition to its Ozarks-area chapter covering parts of Arkansas, Missouri and eastern Oklahoma.
After reports emerged that Back to the Land planned to build a whites-only community in the Springfield, Missouri area, the Springfield City Council posted on Facebook last July that there would be “no room for this divisive and discriminatory vision” in the city “or anywhere.”
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed a bill in April by a narrow vote of 101 to 100 to block the creation of whites-only housing communities. House Bill 2103 follows the Back to the Land initiative’s intent to expand into Pennsylvania and other states.
The bill is now before the Pennsylvania Senate for consideration.
____
Williams is a member of The Associated Press’ Race and Ethnicity team. He reported from Detroit.
