This book examines national fair housing policy from 1960 through 2000 in the context of the American presidency and the country's segregated suburban housing market. It argues that a principal reason for suburban housing segregation lies in Richard Nixon's 1971 fair housing policy, which directed Federal agencies not to place pressure on suburbs to accept low-income housing. After exploring the role played by Lyndon Johnson in the initiation and passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, Nixon's politics of suburban segregation is contrasted to the politics of suburban integration espoused by his HUD secretary, George Romney. Nixon's fair housing legacy is then traced through each presidential administration from Gerald Ford to Bill Clinton and detected in the decisions of Nixon's Federal Court appointees.

"Lamb describes how national policies and politics have affected the existence of housing segregation in suburban areas in the US over the past several decades...adds an important element to the ongoing story of why the US is a segregated society." CHOICE

"Lamb describes how national policies and politics have affected the existence of housing segregation in suburban areas in the US over the past several decades...adds an important element to the ongoing story of why the US is a segregated society." CHOICE

"Lamb's archival research is enlightening--and largely convincing." Political Science Quarterly, Arnold B. Hirsch, University of New Orleans

"Lamb brings to his study a thorough understanding of fair housing issues, which includes work with the U. S. Commission on Civil Rights in the mid-1970s, an impressive amount of primary research in presidential papers and congressional sources, and a thorough mastery of the secondary fair housing literature." -Timothy J. Crimmins, Georgia State University, H-NET