Shelley Vs Kraemer Discrimination

“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle" (Martin Luther King, Jr.). America's laws have changed drastically over the years, such changes seemingly unpredictable and nearly impossible to avoid. Many believe that the effort of one person to make a difference is in vain, but backed with all of America's passion for a better country, anything from the removal of a law or the fight for equality is possible. Because of the effort of American citizens, the United States is the way it is now. At America's beginning, discrimination was the norm, the slavery of African Americans socially acceptable and expected. While this was seen as normal and accepted by a majority of society, the rising of those

Ferguson, several decades later, was the case of Shelley v. Kraemer, which made it so that properties could not be racially restrictive. This case was started when the Shelleys, an African American family bought property from Louis Kraemer, and "were not aware of the restrictive covenant at the time of the purchase" (Shelley v. Kraemer). Immediately following the Shelley family's purchase of the property, Louis Kraemer sued the family, the case being taken to the Supreme Court. It was decided that racially restrictive properties violated the 14th Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause, thus making racially restrictive properties illegal and guaranteeing that African Americans could purchase property without facing prejudice based on the color of their skin. Granted the right to be able to purchase property without restrictions, African Americans were closer to being accepted in the United States than ever before.

By 1967, a majority of African Americans in the United States still faced discrimination, evident in Loving v. Virginia. Because of this case, interracial marriage was legalized when Mildred Loving, a black woman, and Richard Loving, a white man, got married in Virginia, being given the sentence of a year in prison afterwards due to Virginia's Racial Integrity Act of 1924. Subsequently, this case was brought to the Supreme Court, where the Racial Integrity Act of 1924 was declared to be unconstitutional. Following this case, interracial marriage was legalized throughout the entirety of the United to