WEBVTT 00:00:00.680 --> 00:00:02.940 It's kind of wild to think about, but in 1968, 00:00:03.220 --> 00:00:06.000 it was completely legal for a landlord to just 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:08.619 look you in the eye and deny you a home simply 00:00:08.619 --> 00:00:10.679 because of the color of your skin. Yeah, totally 00:00:10.679 --> 00:00:12.419 legal. I mean, you could have the money, right? 00:00:12.439 --> 00:00:14.400 You could have the credit. But if you tried to 00:00:14.400 --> 00:00:17.239 cross this invisible geographic line into a white 00:00:17.239 --> 00:00:19.219 neighborhood, the door would just be shut in 00:00:19.219 --> 00:00:21.640 your face. Exactly. And the most shocking part 00:00:21.640 --> 00:00:24.960 of the history here is that it took literal riots 00:00:24.960 --> 00:00:27.640 outside the doors of Congress to finally change 00:00:27.640 --> 00:00:31.239 that. Welcome to The Deep Dive. Today we are 00:00:31.239 --> 00:00:33.880 pulling from a massive stack of source materials, 00:00:34.719 --> 00:00:37.439 primarily looking at a really comprehensive historical 00:00:37.439 --> 00:00:41.100 and legal breakdown of a single monumental piece 00:00:41.100 --> 00:00:44.039 of legislation, the Civil Rights Act of 1968. 00:00:44.299 --> 00:00:46.939 And our mission today isn't just to, you know... 00:00:46.939 --> 00:00:49.960 walk you through a dry timeline of congressional 00:00:49.960 --> 00:00:51.960 votes. Right. Nobody wants that. No, definitely 00:00:51.960 --> 00:00:54.119 not. We are looking at this specific legislative 00:00:54.119 --> 00:00:56.719 package because it is essentially the blueprint 00:00:56.719 --> 00:00:59.060 for the modern American landscape. I mean, it 00:00:59.060 --> 00:01:01.579 dictated who gets to live where. But it also 00:01:01.579 --> 00:01:03.899 goes much further than housing, right? Because 00:01:03.899 --> 00:01:06.500 as we go through the sources, we see this single 00:01:06.500 --> 00:01:09.540 document also redefine the sovereignty of Native 00:01:09.540 --> 00:01:11.640 American tribes. Yeah, the Indian Civil Rights 00:01:11.640 --> 00:01:14.900 Act. Right. And then at the same time, it completely 00:01:14.900 --> 00:01:17.980 rewired how the federal government polices protests 00:01:17.980 --> 00:01:20.719 and riots. It's a massive package. It really 00:01:20.719 --> 00:01:23.180 is. OK, let's unpack this. Because to understand 00:01:23.180 --> 00:01:25.459 how we even got this law, we have to look at 00:01:25.459 --> 00:01:28.959 the historical reality of 1968. Right. So the 00:01:28.959 --> 00:01:32.379 Civil Rights Act of 1968 had already outlawed 00:01:32.379 --> 00:01:34.519 discrimination in public accommodations, right? 00:01:34.799 --> 00:01:37.400 Like restaurants and hotels. Yes. And then the 00:01:37.400 --> 00:01:40.340 Voting Rights Act of 1965 protected the ballot. 00:01:40.560 --> 00:01:44.459 But housing was still this massive, untouchable 00:01:44.459 --> 00:01:46.840 frontier. Untouchable is honestly the perfect 00:01:46.840 --> 00:01:49.739 word for it. Up to that point, a federal fair 00:01:49.739 --> 00:01:52.359 housing bill was literally the most filibustered 00:01:52.359 --> 00:01:54.500 piece of legislation in United States history. 00:01:54.680 --> 00:01:58.219 Wow. Most filibustered. Yeah. I mean, a previous 00:01:58.219 --> 00:02:00.780 attempt to pass open housing provisions back 00:02:00.780 --> 00:02:04.239 in 1966 had just collapsed completely. And what's 00:02:04.239 --> 00:02:06.079 interesting in the text is that the resistance 00:02:06.079 --> 00:02:08.500 wasn't just coming from southern senators who 00:02:08.500 --> 00:02:10.599 had traditionally opposed civil rights bill. 00:02:10.740 --> 00:02:13.000 Right. It was everywhere. Exactly. It was fiercely 00:02:13.000 --> 00:02:16.479 opposed by northern senators, too, and heavily, 00:02:16.479 --> 00:02:18.879 heavily lobbied against by the National Association 00:02:18.879 --> 00:02:22.020 of Real Estate Boards. Which brings up this really 00:02:22.020 --> 00:02:25.099 fascinating quote from Senator Walter Mondale 00:02:25.099 --> 00:02:28.219 in the source material. He was advocating for 00:02:28.219 --> 00:02:30.259 the bill, and he pointed out that the earlier 00:02:30.259 --> 00:02:32.879 civil rights laws were essentially about forcing 00:02:32.879 --> 00:02:35.699 the South to integrate its public spaces. But 00:02:35.699 --> 00:02:39.300 a housing bill, that brought the reality of integration 00:02:39.300 --> 00:02:43.099 to neighborhoods in Chicago or Boston or New 00:02:43.099 --> 00:02:46.120 York. As Mondale put it, this was civil rights 00:02:46.120 --> 00:02:48.300 getting personal. Getting personal. Yeah, because, 00:02:48.300 --> 00:02:50.430 you know, agreeing with Integration at a lunch 00:02:50.430 --> 00:02:53.210 counter, hundreds of miles away, is one kind 00:02:53.210 --> 00:02:55.449 of political stance. So it's easy. Right. But 00:02:55.449 --> 00:02:57.310 it is a completely different political beast 00:02:57.310 --> 00:02:59.710 when it involves the house next door to yours. 00:02:59.849 --> 00:03:02.330 Because for decades, American neighborhoods were 00:03:02.330 --> 00:03:05.389 segregated not just by custom, but by hard legal 00:03:05.389 --> 00:03:08.009 mechanisms. And the sources highlight neighborhood 00:03:08.009 --> 00:03:10.389 covenants as the most prominent ones. Yes. So 00:03:10.389 --> 00:03:12.430 for anyone listening who hasn't encountered that 00:03:12.430 --> 00:03:15.610 term, like on a property deed, how did a covenant 00:03:15.610 --> 00:03:18.409 actually function back then? So a covenant was 00:03:18.409 --> 00:03:21.389 a legally binding rule written directly into 00:03:21.389 --> 00:03:24.849 the deed of a house. It explicitly forbade the 00:03:24.849 --> 00:03:27.629 sale or rental of that property to anyone who 00:03:27.629 --> 00:03:29.849 wasn't white. And sometimes excluded specific 00:03:29.849 --> 00:03:32.990 religious groups too, right? Exactly. Yeah. And 00:03:32.990 --> 00:03:35.669 the crazy thing is, even if a white homeowner 00:03:35.669 --> 00:03:38.569 wanted to sell to a black family, the covenant 00:03:38.569 --> 00:03:40.330 meant their neighbors could literally take them 00:03:40.330 --> 00:03:42.759 to court to block the sale. Wow. So it wasn't 00:03:42.759 --> 00:03:45.659 just a suggestion. No, it was legally enforceable. 00:03:46.159 --> 00:03:48.460 Those covenants built a fortress around white 00:03:48.460 --> 00:03:51.159 neighborhoods and the political resistance to 00:03:51.159 --> 00:03:54.340 tearing those fortresses down created total gridlock 00:03:54.340 --> 00:03:57.539 in Congress. So what broke the gridlock? Because 00:03:57.539 --> 00:04:00.819 clearly the law passed. The sources highlight 00:04:00.819 --> 00:04:03.699 the Chicago open housing movement led by Martin 00:04:03.699 --> 00:04:06.080 Luther King Jr. Right. Where they marched into 00:04:06.080 --> 00:04:08.159 northern cities and faced horrific violence. 00:04:08.340 --> 00:04:10.740 Yeah. proving that the North was just as segregated 00:04:10.740 --> 00:04:14.199 as the South. And then you have the Kerner Commission 00:04:14.199 --> 00:04:17.439 in 1967. The Kerner Commission is a huge piece 00:04:17.439 --> 00:04:20.139 of this puzzle. They were tasked with studying 00:04:20.139 --> 00:04:22.519 the massive race riots that had swept the country 00:04:22.519 --> 00:04:25.579 that year. And their conclusion was incredibly 00:04:25.579 --> 00:04:27.939 blunt. What did they say? They said the country 00:04:27.939 --> 00:04:30.920 was moving toward two societies, one black, one 00:04:30.920 --> 00:04:34.639 white. Separate and unequal. Exactly. And their 00:04:34.639 --> 00:04:37.939 strongest recommendation to fix it was a comprehensive, 00:04:38.560 --> 00:04:41.459 enforceable federal open housing law. Because 00:04:41.459 --> 00:04:43.980 they realized that without the ability to physically 00:04:43.980 --> 00:04:46.459 move to areas with better jobs and better schools, 00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:49.319 all the previous civil rights gains, like regarding 00:04:49.319 --> 00:04:51.680 employment and voting, they're merely theoretical. 00:04:51.879 --> 00:04:54.000 Right. You can have the legal right to a job. 00:04:54.100 --> 00:04:56.060 But if you are legally barred from living in 00:04:56.060 --> 00:04:58.360 the city where that job exists, the right is 00:04:58.360 --> 00:05:01.779 essentially meaningless. Exactly. Yet, even with 00:05:01.779 --> 00:05:04.339 the Kerner Commission's dire warning, Congress 00:05:04.339 --> 00:05:06.699 still refused to pass the housing bill. It was 00:05:06.699 --> 00:05:09.620 still stuck. Still stuck. The final catalyst 00:05:09.620 --> 00:05:13.459 was, tragically, a national tragedy. On April 00:05:13.459 --> 00:05:17.800 4th, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. 00:05:18.000 --> 00:05:20.620 And the immediate aftermath of that was just 00:05:20.620 --> 00:05:23.459 unprecedented civil unrest across the entire 00:05:23.459 --> 00:05:25.930 country. Yeah. nationwide. We aren't just talking 00:05:25.930 --> 00:05:28.910 about abstract political pressure here. The sources 00:05:28.910 --> 00:05:32.730 say that by April 5th, the very next day, President 00:05:32.730 --> 00:05:35.170 Lyndon B. Johnson wrote an urgent letter to the 00:05:35.170 --> 00:05:37.410 House of Representatives demanding they pass 00:05:37.410 --> 00:05:39.949 the housing bill immediately. Because the lawmakers 00:05:39.949 --> 00:05:41.470 sitting in the rules committee could literally 00:05:41.470 --> 00:05:44.089 see the smoke rising over Washington, D .C. from 00:05:44.089 --> 00:05:46.990 their windows. That is wild to picture. The National 00:05:46.990 --> 00:05:49.699 Guard was deploying in American cities. The source 00:05:49.699 --> 00:05:51.720 material specifically notes that Congress was 00:05:51.720 --> 00:05:54.240 jolted by the repeated civil disturbances virtually 00:05:54.240 --> 00:05:57.040 outside its door. So under that immediate physical 00:05:57.040 --> 00:05:59.319 threat, the bill was rushed through and signed 00:05:59.319 --> 00:06:02.459 into law on April 11. Just exactly a week after 00:06:02.459 --> 00:06:06.149 King's death. Wow. And the centerpiece of that 00:06:06.149 --> 00:06:08.930 hurried legislation is what we now call the Fair 00:06:08.930 --> 00:06:11.709 Housing Act. Right. Titles eight and nine acts 00:06:11.709 --> 00:06:14.329 of the act. So while Congress was forced by the 00:06:14.329 --> 00:06:17.029 unrest to address the geography of American cities, 00:06:17.629 --> 00:06:20.410 this law was designed to dismantle those invisible 00:06:20.410 --> 00:06:23.449 neighborhood borders we talked about. Yes. It's 00:06:23.449 --> 00:06:26.230 strictly prohibited discrimination in selling, 00:06:26.449 --> 00:06:30.160 renting or financing housing based on race. color, 00:06:30.579 --> 00:06:33.259 religion, or national origin. But the protections 00:06:33.259 --> 00:06:35.399 written in 68 were really just the baseline, 00:06:35.560 --> 00:06:38.019 right? Yeah, absolutely. The Fair Housing Act 00:06:38.019 --> 00:06:40.879 has functioned as a living document. It expanded 00:06:40.879 --> 00:06:44.980 as society evolved. So in 1974, lawmakers added 00:06:44.980 --> 00:06:47.839 protections against discrimination based on sex. 00:06:47.839 --> 00:06:50.480 OK. Then in 1988, they added protections for 00:06:50.480 --> 00:06:53.560 families with children, which also covered pregnant 00:06:53.560 --> 00:06:55.300 women. And crucially, they added protections 00:06:55.300 --> 00:06:57.459 for people with disabilities. And the disability 00:06:57.459 --> 00:06:59.560 protections really stand out in the source material 00:06:59.560 --> 00:07:01.620 because they aren't just about preventing a landlord 00:07:01.620 --> 00:07:03.879 from saying no. Right, it's more proactive. Yeah, 00:07:03.899 --> 00:07:06.120 they actually mandate reasonable accommodations. 00:07:06.339 --> 00:07:08.160 So how does that work in practice for a tenant? 00:07:08.459 --> 00:07:10.740 It means a housing provider has to change their 00:07:10.740 --> 00:07:14.259 standard rules. or allow physical modifications 00:07:14.259 --> 00:07:17.360 so a person with a disability can actually use 00:07:17.360 --> 00:07:19.560 the space. Well, like what kind of modifications? 00:07:20.160 --> 00:07:22.360 Well, for example, if a building has a strict 00:07:22.360 --> 00:07:25.139 no pets policy, they legally have to make an 00:07:25.139 --> 00:07:27.459 exception for a blind person with a guide dog. 00:07:27.959 --> 00:07:30.600 OK, that makes sense. Or if a tenant who uses 00:07:30.600 --> 00:07:33.220 a wheelchair needs grab bars installed in the 00:07:33.220 --> 00:07:35.920 bathroom, the landlord have to permit that physical 00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:39.079 modification. But, and the sources are clear 00:07:39.079 --> 00:07:41.500 on this, the landlord doesn't necessarily foot 00:07:41.500 --> 00:07:44.300 the bill for those physical changes. Yeah, that 00:07:44.300 --> 00:07:46.779 is the nuance there. The tenant generally has 00:07:46.779 --> 00:07:48.899 to pay for the installation of those grab bars. 00:07:49.560 --> 00:07:51.959 And technically, the landlord can require the 00:07:51.959 --> 00:07:54.019 tenant to pay to remove them and restore the 00:07:54.019 --> 00:07:56.319 bathroom to its original condition when the lease 00:07:56.319 --> 00:07:58.339 is up. Assuming the modification would interfere 00:07:58.339 --> 00:08:00.100 with the next tenant's use of the space, right? 00:08:00.279 --> 00:08:03.100 Exactly. Now, the sources also detail what the 00:08:03.100 --> 00:08:05.779 Fair Housing Act does not cover, because landlords 00:08:05.779 --> 00:08:08.329 are still perfectly legally allowed to discriminate 00:08:08.329 --> 00:08:10.790 against applicants provided they use objective 00:08:10.790 --> 00:08:13.610 business criteria. Right. You can still be denied. 00:08:14.350 --> 00:08:17.050 A landlord can legally deny you a lease if you 00:08:17.050 --> 00:08:19.029 have a history of missed payments on your credit 00:08:19.029 --> 00:08:22.430 report or if your income just doesn't meet their 00:08:22.430 --> 00:08:24.850 minimum threshold. What about government assistance? 00:08:26.120 --> 00:08:28.740 In many jurisdictions, they can also simply refuse 00:08:28.740 --> 00:08:32.120 to accept Section 8 housing vouchers, which is 00:08:32.120 --> 00:08:33.899 the federal government's program for assisting 00:08:33.899 --> 00:08:36.179 low -income families with rent. So they can just 00:08:36.179 --> 00:08:39.600 say no to that money? Yes. The law only requires 00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:41.940 that landlords apply those financial screening 00:08:41.940 --> 00:08:44.919 criteria consistently to every single applicant, 00:08:45.299 --> 00:08:48.539 regardless of their background. So the law essentially 00:08:48.539 --> 00:08:50.879 ensures a landlord can reject you for the contents 00:08:50.879 --> 00:08:53.659 of your wallet, but absolutely not for your identity? 00:08:54.019 --> 00:08:55.750 That's a great way to put it. But looking at 00:08:55.750 --> 00:08:58.289 the modern landscape, there is a glaring statistic 00:08:58.289 --> 00:09:00.210 in our sources that we have to talk about. The 00:09:00.210 --> 00:09:02.789 HUD numbers. Yeah. We have the Department of 00:09:02.789 --> 00:09:05.289 Housing and Urban Development, specifically their 00:09:05.289 --> 00:09:07.649 Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, 00:09:08.009 --> 00:09:11.889 tasked with enforcing this law. Yet HUD estimates 00:09:11.889 --> 00:09:14.350 that two million cases of housing discrimination 00:09:14.350 --> 00:09:17.570 still happen every single year. And some advocacy 00:09:17.570 --> 00:09:19.570 groups say it's closer to four million. Which 00:09:19.570 --> 00:09:22.610 is staggering. If this monumental law has been 00:09:22.610 --> 00:09:25.289 on the book since 1968, why is that number still 00:09:25.289 --> 00:09:28.629 so high? Well, having a right codified on paper 00:09:28.629 --> 00:09:30.970 and actually enforcing that right in the real 00:09:30.970 --> 00:09:33.070 world are two very different battles. Clearly. 00:09:33.370 --> 00:09:35.110 I mean, the Office of Fair Housing and Equal 00:09:35.110 --> 00:09:37.909 Opportunity is massive. They have over 600 staff 00:09:37.909 --> 00:09:41.210 across 54 offices, and anyone can file a complaint 00:09:41.210 --> 00:09:44.519 for free. Right. But a 2010 Government Accountability 00:09:44.519 --> 00:09:47.100 Office report highlighted that enforcement is 00:09:47.100 --> 00:09:49.659 wildly inconsistent across local jurisdictions. 00:09:50.559 --> 00:09:52.639 But really the bigger issue is that the methods 00:09:52.639 --> 00:09:55.860 of discrimination evolved. It's no longer a landlord 00:09:55.860 --> 00:09:58.620 explicitly citing a racial covenant and shutting 00:09:58.620 --> 00:10:01.120 the door in your face. Precisely. It became much 00:10:01.120 --> 00:10:04.009 more sophisticated and Honestly, much harder 00:10:04.009 --> 00:10:07.070 to prove. Like how? Well, it might look like 00:10:07.070 --> 00:10:09.549 a real estate agent subtly steering a minority 00:10:09.549 --> 00:10:11.850 family away from viewing homes in a particular 00:10:11.850 --> 00:10:13.889 school district. Oh, wow. Just not even showing 00:10:13.889 --> 00:10:16.990 them the houses. Exactly. Or, in modern financing, 00:10:17.169 --> 00:10:20.370 it might involve an algorithm. Banks or zoning 00:10:20.370 --> 00:10:23.549 boards sometimes use complex data points that 00:10:23.549 --> 00:10:26.820 act as proxies for race. proxies. So they aren't 00:10:26.820 --> 00:10:28.919 explicitly asking for your race. Right. They 00:10:28.919 --> 00:10:31.700 effectively redline minority zip codes without 00:10:31.700 --> 00:10:34.779 ever explicitly factoring in the race of the 00:10:34.779 --> 00:10:37.019 applicant. And this just leaves a persistent 00:10:37.200 --> 00:10:40.700 massive gap between the intent of the 1968 law 00:10:40.700 --> 00:10:43.600 and the reality on the ground. So while the federal 00:10:43.600 --> 00:10:45.879 government was wrestling with how to guarantee 00:10:45.879 --> 00:10:48.220 housing rights for marginalized citizens within 00:10:48.220 --> 00:10:51.279 American cities, they were simultaneously facing 00:10:51.279 --> 00:10:54.139 a constitutional headache regarding a completely 00:10:54.139 --> 00:10:57.299 different kind of geography. Yes, the 1968 Act. 00:10:57.500 --> 00:11:00.000 also contains the Indian Civil Rights Act. Which 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:02.320 is fascinating because this represents a completely 00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:04.820 different legal and philosophical puzzle. It 00:11:04.820 --> 00:11:06.620 really does. The federal government was dealing 00:11:06.620 --> 00:11:09.000 with integrating its own citizens, sure, but 00:11:09.000 --> 00:11:10.940 it also had to navigate its relationship with 00:11:10.940 --> 00:11:13.480 these separate sovereign nations of Native American 00:11:13.480 --> 00:11:16.440 tribes. Right. Because historically the U .S. 00:11:16.500 --> 00:11:19.299 Supreme Court had maintained that Native American 00:11:19.299 --> 00:11:21.960 tribes were not subject to the constitutional 00:11:21.960 --> 00:11:24.639 protections of the Bill of Rights in their internal 00:11:24.639 --> 00:11:26.879 affairs. Because they predate the United States 00:11:26.879 --> 00:11:30.059 Constitution? Yes. They were sovereign, independent 00:11:30.059 --> 00:11:33.860 entities. However, during the 1960s, Congress 00:11:33.860 --> 00:11:36.860 held a series of hearings, and they documented 00:11:36.860 --> 00:11:40.059 instances where tribal members were facing abuses 00:11:40.059 --> 00:11:42.200 from tribal officials. And those individuals 00:11:42.200 --> 00:11:45.940 had no constitutional recourse. None. The U .S. 00:11:46.159 --> 00:11:48.279 courts couldn't intervene. So the legislative 00:11:48.279 --> 00:11:50.980 solution was the Indian Civil Rights Act, which 00:11:50.980 --> 00:11:52.899 essentially applies the U .S. Bill of Rights 00:11:52.899 --> 00:11:55.600 to federally recognized tribes. It guarantees 00:11:55.600 --> 00:11:57.840 free speech, protection against unreasonable 00:11:57.840 --> 00:12:00.500 search and seizure, the right to a speedy trial. 00:12:00.919 --> 00:12:03.139 But, and this is key in the sources, Congress 00:12:03.139 --> 00:12:06.019 intentionally left out several core constitutional 00:12:06.019 --> 00:12:08.100 guarantees. They made very deliberate omissions, 00:12:08.139 --> 00:12:10.759 like they did not impose the separation of church 00:12:10.759 --> 00:12:12.419 and state on tribal governments. Oh, interesting. 00:12:12.480 --> 00:12:15.159 They didn't require a Republican form of government. 00:12:15.419 --> 00:12:18.320 They didn't guarantee a jury trial in civil cases. 00:12:19.220 --> 00:12:21.519 And crucially for the criminal justice system, 00:12:21.700 --> 00:12:23.860 they did not guarantee the right to appointed 00:12:23.860 --> 00:12:26.000 counsel for someone who couldn't afford a lawyer. 00:12:26.639 --> 00:12:29.639 So no public defenders mandated? Right. It's 00:12:29.639 --> 00:12:32.340 almost like, um, like installing a tailored software 00:12:32.340 --> 00:12:35.419 patch. Like Congress decided to install basic 00:12:35.419 --> 00:12:37.779 civil rights protections onto the tribal justice 00:12:37.779 --> 00:12:40.940 system, but they intentionally left out certain 00:12:40.940 --> 00:12:43.059 lines of code to make sure the tribe's native 00:12:43.059 --> 00:12:45.799 operating system could still run. That is an 00:12:45.799 --> 00:12:48.879 excellent way to conceptualize it. Congress recognized 00:12:48.879 --> 00:12:51.220 the distinct political and cultural status of 00:12:51.220 --> 00:12:54.000 the tribes. Right. They had to. Yeah. Because 00:12:54.000 --> 00:12:55.820 forcing total separation of church and state, 00:12:55.840 --> 00:12:57.899 for instance, would have fundamentally broken 00:12:57.899 --> 00:13:00.039 how many tribal governments culturally operated 00:13:00.039 --> 00:13:03.220 where spiritual and civic leadership were deeply 00:13:03.220 --> 00:13:05.419 intertwined. But that creates an inherent tension, 00:13:05.419 --> 00:13:07.919 right? Because how does a legal system reconcile 00:13:07.919 --> 00:13:10.879 the desire to protect an individual's civil rights 00:13:10.879 --> 00:13:13.340 with the fundamental right of a sovereign tribe 00:13:13.340 --> 00:13:16.559 to govern itself? It's incredibly difficult. 00:13:17.059 --> 00:13:19.740 And we can see that exact tension play out in 00:13:19.740 --> 00:13:24.080 a landmark 1978 Supreme Court case, Santa Clara 00:13:24.080 --> 00:13:26.799 Pueblo V. Martinez. Yes. The details of this 00:13:26.799 --> 00:13:29.179 case perfectly illustrate the collision of those 00:13:29.179 --> 00:13:33.220 two ideas. So a mother sued her tribe because 00:13:33.220 --> 00:13:35.740 her child was denied tribal membership. Right. 00:13:36.120 --> 00:13:38.080 And the reason for the denial was that she married 00:13:38.080 --> 00:13:41.120 a man outside the tribe. But the catch is... 00:13:41.159 --> 00:13:43.779 The tribe's rules stated that if a man from the 00:13:43.779 --> 00:13:46.159 tribe married an outsider, his children would 00:13:46.159 --> 00:13:48.360 automatically get membership. So she argued this 00:13:48.360 --> 00:13:50.759 was blatant sex discrimination. Exactly. And 00:13:50.759 --> 00:13:53.500 a clear violation of the newly passed Indian 00:13:53.500 --> 00:13:56.759 Civil Rights Act. And from a purely individual 00:13:56.759 --> 00:13:59.519 rights perspective, her argument is incredibly 00:13:59.519 --> 00:14:02.240 strong. It seems open and shut. It does. But 00:14:02.240 --> 00:14:04.299 the Supreme Court actually ruled against her. 00:14:04.399 --> 00:14:07.120 Wait, really? Yes. But they didn't rule on the 00:14:07.120 --> 00:14:09.039 fairness of the membership rule itself. Instead, 00:14:09.279 --> 00:14:11.220 they decided that tribal common law, sovereign 00:14:11.220 --> 00:14:13.600 immunity, prevented the suit entirely. OK, for 00:14:13.600 --> 00:14:15.139 those listening who might be unfamiliar with 00:14:15.139 --> 00:14:17.320 that term, what does sovereign immunity actually 00:14:17.320 --> 00:14:20.610 mean in this context? Sovereign immunity. is 00:14:20.610 --> 00:14:22.990 the legal doctrine that a sovereign nation cannot 00:14:22.990 --> 00:14:26.669 be sued without its consent. Oh, okay. So the 00:14:26.669 --> 00:14:28.809 Supreme Court determined that while Congress 00:14:28.809 --> 00:14:31.429 passed the Indian Civil Rights Act, they didn't 00:14:31.429 --> 00:14:34.269 explicitly strip away the tribe's sovereign immunity. 00:14:34.330 --> 00:14:38.409 I see. Therefore, a tribal member could not drag 00:14:38.409 --> 00:14:41.029 the tribal government into a federal court to 00:14:41.029 --> 00:14:43.669 dispute an internal governance issue like membership. 00:14:44.190 --> 00:14:46.350 So that effectively limits the reach of the Indian 00:14:46.350 --> 00:14:48.659 Civil Rights Act. Right. It ensures the federal 00:14:48.659 --> 00:14:50.799 government doesn't become the micromanager of 00:14:50.799 --> 00:14:53.460 tribal affairs. It massively strengthened tribal 00:14:53.460 --> 00:14:56.539 self -determination. But the mere existence of 00:14:56.539 --> 00:14:59.399 the act still forever altered tribal justice. 00:14:59.519 --> 00:15:01.870 Because they had to adapt to it. Exactly. It 00:15:01.870 --> 00:15:04.429 inadvertently forced tribal courts to mirror 00:15:04.429 --> 00:15:07.490 modern American legal procedures to demonstrate 00:15:07.490 --> 00:15:09.570 compliance with these new civil rights standards. 00:15:10.190 --> 00:15:12.570 Tribal courts adopted rules of evidence, pleading 00:15:12.570 --> 00:15:14.629 requirements, and formalized courtroom settings 00:15:14.629 --> 00:15:17.169 that were familiar to U .S. lawyers. So it legitimized 00:15:17.169 --> 00:15:19.129 them in the eyes of the federal system, but it 00:15:19.129 --> 00:15:21.750 fundamentally westernized how traditional tribal 00:15:21.750 --> 00:15:24.570 justice was administered. That's exactly the 00:15:24.570 --> 00:15:26.809 trade -off that happened. Wow. Okay, so we've 00:15:26.809 --> 00:15:29.049 covered housing integration and tribal sovereignty. 00:15:29.679 --> 00:15:32.960 But the 1968 act has one more major pivot we 00:15:32.960 --> 00:15:35.879 need to cover. Titles 1 and X. Right. Because 00:15:35.879 --> 00:15:38.039 the legislation transitions from the expansion 00:15:38.039 --> 00:15:41.879 of rights to strict limitations placed upon citizens. 00:15:42.460 --> 00:15:44.899 And we have to examine the profound irony here. 00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:47.620 Oh, it's definitely ironic. This was a bill pushed 00:15:47.620 --> 00:15:50.559 over the finish line by the massive civil unrest 00:15:50.559 --> 00:15:52.980 following Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. 00:15:53.639 --> 00:15:56.830 Yet. Buried within the same document are strict 00:15:56.830 --> 00:15:59.769 mechanisms designed to severely punish that exact 00:15:59.769 --> 00:16:02.190 same unrest. Yeah, the legislation established 00:16:02.190 --> 00:16:04.909 federal prosecution for hate crimes, but it also 00:16:04.909 --> 00:16:07.059 created the Anti -Riot Act. Let's start with 00:16:07.059 --> 00:16:09.779 the hate crimes part. So the hate crime provisions 00:16:09.779 --> 00:16:12.299 made it a federal offense to use force, or the 00:16:12.299 --> 00:16:15.159 threat of force, to injure or intimidate minorities 00:16:15.159 --> 00:16:17.340 because they were engaging in protected activities. 00:16:17.519 --> 00:16:20.019 Like voting or attending public school. Right, 00:16:20.059 --> 00:16:22.720 or even traveling. The penalties range from fines 00:16:22.720 --> 00:16:25.279 to a year in prison, all the way up to life in 00:16:25.279 --> 00:16:27.399 prison, or the death penalty if a murder occurred. 00:16:27.759 --> 00:16:29.980 OK, so that's Title I, but then you have Title 00:16:29.980 --> 00:16:33.850 X, the Anti -Riot Act. which the sources mentioned 00:16:33.850 --> 00:16:37.730 was informally called the HRAP Brown Law, named 00:16:37.730 --> 00:16:40.029 after a prominent civil rights activist. Yes. 00:16:40.250 --> 00:16:42.509 And this section made it a federal felony to 00:16:42.509 --> 00:16:44.710 travel in interstate commerce with the intent 00:16:44.710 --> 00:16:47.370 to incite, organize, promote, or participate 00:16:47.370 --> 00:16:49.629 in a riot. And this is where it gets tricky, 00:16:50.169 --> 00:16:52.990 because interstate commerce in federal law doesn't 00:16:52.990 --> 00:16:55.409 just mean physically driving your car across 00:16:55.409 --> 00:16:57.789 a state border. What else does it mean? It includes 00:16:57.789 --> 00:17:00.230 using the mail, making a phone call or sending 00:17:00.230 --> 00:17:02.549 a telegram across state lines. Are you serious? 00:17:02.730 --> 00:17:04.609 So they essentially made it a federal crime to 00:17:04.609 --> 00:17:07.509 cross state lines to start a riot, which controversially 00:17:07.509 --> 00:17:09.990 meant that simply making a phone call to organize 00:17:09.990 --> 00:17:12.369 a protest that later turned violent could invite 00:17:12.369 --> 00:17:15.630 a federal felony charge. Yes. And its legacy 00:17:15.630 --> 00:17:18.869 is heavily debated because critics argue it functionally 00:17:18.869 --> 00:17:21.410 equates organized political protest with organized 00:17:21.410 --> 00:17:24.170 violence. I can see why. Historically, the federal 00:17:24.170 --> 00:17:26.269 government famously used it to prosecute the 00:17:26.269 --> 00:17:28.990 Chicago seven after the massive protests at the 00:17:28.990 --> 00:17:32.230 1968 Democratic National Convention. And it hasn't 00:17:32.230 --> 00:17:34.450 just sat on the shelf since the 60s either. No, 00:17:34.609 --> 00:17:36.710 not at all. The sources note it was used against 00:17:36.710 --> 00:17:38.849 organizers of the White Nationalists Unite the 00:17:38.849 --> 00:17:41.450 Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017, though 00:17:41.450 --> 00:17:43.710 the courts have stepped in recently. Right, there 00:17:43.710 --> 00:17:45.750 were some significant rulings. Yeah, in 2020 00:17:45.750 --> 00:17:48.769 and 2021, federal serpent courts actually struck 00:17:48.769 --> 00:17:51.150 down the portions of the law that prohibited 00:17:51.150 --> 00:17:54.059 simply urging a riot. because of the First Amendment. 00:17:54.319 --> 00:17:57.039 Exactly. The courts ruled that criminalizing 00:17:57.039 --> 00:17:59.839 the mere urging of an event violated freedom 00:17:59.839 --> 00:18:03.319 of speech protections. However, they left the 00:18:03.319 --> 00:18:06.599 bans on actually inciting or participating in 00:18:06.599 --> 00:18:08.880 violence fully intact. Which is a crucial distinction. 00:18:09.130 --> 00:18:12.490 It is. But look at the glaring legislative paradox 00:18:12.490 --> 00:18:15.769 here. It's massive. Congress passes a monumental 00:18:15.769 --> 00:18:19.390 civil rights bill expanding housing rights, literally 00:18:19.390 --> 00:18:22.490 pressured by nationwide riots. And in the exact 00:18:22.490 --> 00:18:26.009 same breath, they codify a law to strictly criminalize 00:18:26.009 --> 00:18:29.029 the crossing of state lines to incite riot. Is 00:18:29.029 --> 00:18:31.589 this just Congress giving with one hand and taking 00:18:31.589 --> 00:18:33.769 with the other? Well, this duality reveals how 00:18:33.769 --> 00:18:37.079 landmark legislation is actually forged. in the 00:18:37.079 --> 00:18:39.380 real world. What do you mean? To get a massive 00:18:39.380 --> 00:18:42.279 expansion of progressive civil rights, like the 00:18:42.279 --> 00:18:45.200 Fair Housing Act, passed in a deeply divided 00:18:45.200 --> 00:18:48.599 gridlocked Congress, proponents had to engage 00:18:48.599 --> 00:18:51.539 in immense political compromise. So the Anti 00:18:51.539 --> 00:18:53.940 -Riot Act was the sweetener. It was the concession. 00:18:54.099 --> 00:18:57.240 It was a calculated balance, blending civil rights 00:18:57.240 --> 00:19:00.519 with strict law and order mandates to secure 00:19:00.519 --> 00:19:03.039 enough moderate and conservative votes to pass 00:19:03.039 --> 00:19:05.809 the overall package. It was a legislative trade 00:19:05.809 --> 00:19:08.789 -off. Lawmakers essentially said, we will concede 00:19:08.789 --> 00:19:11.750 to federal open housing, but we demand federal 00:19:11.750 --> 00:19:14.190 power to crush the riots currently happening 00:19:14.190 --> 00:19:17.170 outside our windows. It is the stark reality 00:19:17.170 --> 00:19:20.069 of the political tension in America in 1968, 00:19:20.509 --> 00:19:22.809 just captured in a single document. It really 00:19:22.809 --> 00:19:24.829 is staggering when you step back and look at 00:19:24.829 --> 00:19:27.609 the sheer scope of this single piece of legislation. 00:19:27.630 --> 00:19:30.589 It's unparalleled. I mean, in one swoop, Congress 00:19:30.589 --> 00:19:32.970 tackled neighborhood segregation, the sovereignty 00:19:32.970 --> 00:19:35.349 of Native American tribes, federal hate crimes, 00:19:35.710 --> 00:19:38.410 and interstate riots. It fundamentally rewired 00:19:38.410 --> 00:19:41.309 the legal framework of the country. So the next 00:19:41.309 --> 00:19:43.970 time you sign a lease for an apartment or read 00:19:43.970 --> 00:19:46.150 a news story about a First Amendment court case 00:19:46.150 --> 00:19:49.230 regarding a protest or, you know, hear a debate 00:19:49.230 --> 00:19:52.269 about tribal jurisdiction, you are living inside 00:19:52.269 --> 00:19:55.730 the echo of this exact document. Absolutely. 00:19:55.930 --> 00:19:58.809 It is the invisible architecture of the society 00:19:58.809 --> 00:20:01.210 you navigate every day. You know, if there is 00:20:01.210 --> 00:20:03.630 one final historical thread to leave you with, 00:20:04.029 --> 00:20:06.329 it's actually found deep in the background context 00:20:06.329 --> 00:20:08.890 of this legislation. Oh, yeah. Yeah. We spent 00:20:08.890 --> 00:20:11.130 this whole time discussing the monumental shifts 00:20:11.130 --> 00:20:15.470 of 1968. But the Civil Rights Act of 1866, passed 00:20:15.470 --> 00:20:17.769 immediately after the Civil War, technically 00:20:17.769 --> 00:20:20.029 banned housing discrimination a full century 00:20:20.029 --> 00:20:22.349 earlier. Wait, a hundred years earlier? Yes. 00:20:22.710 --> 00:20:25.109 It explicitly declared that all citizens had 00:20:25.109 --> 00:20:28.059 the same right to inherit purchase, lease, sell, 00:20:28.200 --> 00:20:30.180 and hold property. So housing discrimination 00:20:30.180 --> 00:20:33.339 was technically illegal since 1866? On paper, 00:20:33.640 --> 00:20:37.720 yes. But the 1866 law had zero federal enforcement 00:20:37.720 --> 00:20:39.940 provisions. There was no Department of Housing 00:20:39.940 --> 00:20:42.480 and Urban Development. There was no agency tasked 00:20:42.480 --> 00:20:44.880 with investigating complaints. So nobody to actually 00:20:44.880 --> 00:20:46.700 make sure the law was being followed. Right. 00:20:47.240 --> 00:20:49.539 The penalty was a thousand dollar fine or a year 00:20:49.539 --> 00:20:52.220 in jail, but without an enforcement mechanism. 00:20:52.410 --> 00:20:55.349 It was an empty promise. It was practically toothless. 00:20:55.390 --> 00:20:59.329 Wow. It took exactly 102 years, decades of tireless 00:20:59.329 --> 00:21:01.769 activism, the assassination of a generational 00:21:01.769 --> 00:21:05.390 leader, and the riots of 1968 to finally create 00:21:05.390 --> 00:21:07.369 the enforcement mechanisms we see in the Fair 00:21:07.369 --> 00:21:10.910 Housing Act. Huh. A law on the books for an entire 00:21:10.910 --> 00:21:13.309 century just completely ignored until society 00:21:13.309 --> 00:21:15.569 physically forced the issue. Which leaves you 00:21:15.569 --> 00:21:18.240 to wonder. When you look at the laws and the 00:21:18.240 --> 00:21:20.720 rights we supposedly have codified today, how 00:21:20.720 --> 00:21:23.759 many of them are just like the 1866 Act? Right. 00:21:23.920 --> 00:21:26.099 Technically legal, technically guaranteed, but 00:21:26.099 --> 00:21:28.319 practically toothless, just waiting for their 00:21:28.319 --> 00:21:31.180 own 1968 moment to finally be enforced. Is the 00:21:31.180 --> 00:21:33.359 invisible line in the sand really gone or has 00:21:33.359 --> 00:21:35.839 it just been moved? That is a lot to think about. 00:21:36.160 --> 00:21:38.000 Thank you for joining us on this deep dive. Keep 00:21:38.000 --> 00:21:39.619 questioning the history behind the headlines 00:21:39.619 --> 00:21:41.019 and we will see you next time.