Fair Housing Act

The commonly used name for Titles VIII and IX of the US Civil Rights Act of 1968, a landmark law signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on 11 April 1968 during the King assassination riots. It prohibited discrimination in the sale, rental and financing of housing based on race, religion and national origin - later extended to sex, disability and familial status - and made it a federal crime to injure, intimidate or interfere with anyone by force over those categories. It followed up the Civil Rights Act of 1964, since the 1866 Civil Rights Act's housing ban had no federal enforcement provisions.