In the late 1800s and early 1900s, tools of housing discrimination included which of the following?

• A. Both governmental and private restrictions
• B. Deed restrictions
• C. Zoning ordinances
• D. Public housing programs

Answer: (B)

Deed restrictions, or restrictive covenants, were a common private tool used to keep neighborhoods racially and religiously homogeneous in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Developers and property owners inserted clauses in property deeds that barred sale or occupancy by people of certain races or faiths, and these covenants were often enforced through private action and by the courts. While government actions did occur later, the period’s most telling discriminatory practice in housing was these private restraints on who could buy or live in a home. Zoning ordinances and public housing programs became more prominent later, so they don’t best reflect the era’s primary discriminatory tool.