Whites framed blockbusting as a deliberate racial conspiracy

Evidence

In an effort to “steal” their park and school, the McLeans charged, black brokers were deliberately “using the race issue as a weapon and a device to drive down the market value” of white residents’ homes. Their lawsuit accused the real-estate agents of spreading rumors that “colored persons will take over at least half the area … by January 1, 1953, and force out the remaining white property owners in another year or two.” To speed white flight, the unscrupulous brokers were supposedly using a variety of “nefarious schemes” and “conniving practices,” including placing ads in newspapers and putting up “For Sale” signs in the neighborhood. Furthermore, through repeated telephone calls, letters, and personal visits, the brokers had asked them directly to sell their homes. As an added insult, their lawsuit charged, the agents “caused persons of the colored race to drive slowly over the area … at all hours of the day and night pretending to be searching for houses to purchase which causes apprehension, alarm, and embarrassment to petitioners, their neighbors, and friends.” — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 166

Categorization

• QUESTION: Was the ‘conspiracy’ framing a genuine perception of blockbusting tactics or a racialized narrative used to justify defense?
• XREF: connects to: Southern whites framed busing as punishing their legitimate hard work — Matthew D. Lassiter, The Suburban Origins of “Color-Blind”…, 4; Blockbusting turned racial fear into profit for real estate speculators — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The…, 917; White civic elites cast blockbusting as whites’ moral disgrace while black realtors behaved honorably — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 226

Broader Connections

• Blockbusting turned racial fear into profit for real estate speculators #expands (0.82) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 917
• White civic elites cast blockbusting as whites’ moral disgrace while black realtors behaved honorably #qualifies (0.80) — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 226