California Proposition 14

California Proposition 14 was an amendment to the constitution of the state of California promoted by segregationists who wanted to nullify the Rumford Fair Housing Act.

Rumford Fair Housing Act

The Rumford Fair Housing Act was a law passed in 1963 by the state of California to help end racial discrimination by property owners and landlords who refused to rent or sell their property to "colored" customers. It was drafted by William Byron Rumford, the first African American from Northern California to serve in the legislature. The Act provided that landlords could not deny people housing because of ethnicity, religion, sex, marital status, physical handicap, or familial status.

Proposition 14

Many of these property owners disagreed with this act. Many felt that it was too restrictive and represented unfair interference by state government in private affairs. Thus, in 1964, the California Real Estate Association sponsored an initiative to counteract the effects of the Act.cite news|title=Proposition 14|date=September 25, 1964|publisher=Time Magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,876158,00.html|accessdate=2008-01-15]

The initiative, numbered Proposition 14 when it was certified for the ballot, was to add an amendment to the constitution of California. This amendment would provide, in part, as follows:

"Neither the State nor any subdivision or agency thereof shall deny, limit or abridge, directly or indirectly, the right of any person, who is willing or desires to sell, lease or rent any part or all of his real property, to decline to sell, lease or rent such property to such person or persons as he, in his absolute discretion, chooses."

Following much publicity the proposition gained the endorsement of many large conservative political groups, including the John Birch Society and the California Republican Assembly. As these and other groups endorsed the proposal it became increasingly more popular and the petition to have the proposition added to the ballot garnered over one million signatures. This was more than twice the 480,000 signatures that were required. The initiative proved to be overwhelmingly popular, and was passed by a 65% majority vote in the 1964 California elections. [cite book|title=American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland|author=Robert O. Self|page=168|date=2003|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=gK3jFVtUnxgC&pg=PA167&lpg=PA167&dq=proposition+14+california+1964&source=web&ots=P6jJOh7-s_&sig=YvseQfxKoRZx1j9NDeImfmK01-A|ISBN=0691070261]

As soon as it was passed, the federal government cut off all housing funds to California. The fact that Robert C. Weaver, the first African American member of the U.S. Cabinet, was United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, may have had something to do with the government's response. [cite book
last =Rumford
first =William Byron, interviewee
authorlink =
coauthors =Joyce Henderson, Amelia R. Fry, and Edward France, interviewers
title =Legislator for fair employment, fair housing and public health : oral history transcript
publisher =Bancroft Library. Regional Oral History Office
date =1973
location =Berkeley
pages =3
url =http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=hb8n39p2g3&query=&brand=calisphere
doi =
id =
isbn = ]

It is believed that this amendment helped to fuel racial tensions which erupted during the Watts Riots of 1965.Fact|date=January 2008

Three years later, in 1967, the amendment was declared unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court in the case of Reitman v. Mulkey. The Supreme Court ruled that the amendment was in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

References