Black realtors withdrew from segregation pacts once whites’ circumvention dissolved reciprocal trust.

Evidence

In March 1950 Arnold Kennedy sketched out an ambitious plan, calling for local businessmen to “purchase or resell to Whites” all the recently transferred property—the five homes on Mozley Drive, the three on Adele Avenue, a number of empty lots on various streets, and even the Scott residence on Mozley Place. … This time, however, black realtists refused. The original agreement had been easily circumvented by others, they pointed out, and in any case they never enjoyed endorsing a system of segregation that held them in check, both personally and professionally. The entire rationale behind the “defense” of white neighborhoods was preposterous, complained Robert Thompson and Austin Walden. “Negroes have legally purchased property or moved into homes adjacent to or near white sections, and such actions cannot be considered as ‘encroachment,’ ” they asserted. “It is inconceivable to believe that Negroes have gradually or silently infringed upon the rights of the white citizens in the Mozley Park Section of Atlanta, especially when the white residents of the area made overtures first.” With all of the black realty firms in agreement, the Empire Real Estate Board decided to stop supporting residential segregation in Mozley Park. — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 159

Categorization

• QUESTION: The refusal by the EREB — the black realtists’ association — marks a pivotal asymmetry: internal defection by whites voided the blacks’ obligation. Worth tracing how this collapse of the ‘voluntary boundary line’ accelerated the legal push against segregation.
• XREF: connects to: White suffragists abandoned black allies to win southern ratification — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 111

Broader Connections

• White suffragists abandoned black allies to win southern ratification #exemplifies (0.72) — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 111