Johnson County’s pioneering fair housing advocates
Johnson County has a long history of struggles and advocacy surrounding fair housing. In the prewar era, discriminatory real estate practices and federal home loan programs actively undermined fair housing principles.
From the 1910s through 1950, developers routinely added racially restrictive covenants on their neighborhoods, explicitly prohibiting African Americans, other people of color and Jews from renting, owning or living on the property. Federal Housing Administration mortgage programs, later adopted by the Veterans Administration, required these covenants for eligibility.
Additionally, the FHA created and used redlining maps to define areas it would and would not approve loans in for more than 200 cities across the country, often automatically rejecting applications from Black, Latino/a, and other non-white home buyers.
In 1950, two years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled racially restrictive covenants were unenforceable, Johnson County’s suburban developments were 96% racially restricted – 148 of 154 developments open to only white home buyers. However, the postwar era also saw the rise of fair housing advocacy, which would begin to change this landscape.
One of the earliest advocates was Rev. Robert “Dr. Bob” Meneilly, the white pastor of Village Presbyterian Church in Prairie Village. As early as 1947, Meneilly preached loving one’s neighbor, and he went door-to-door to meet and engage with his community. As fair housing efforts gained momentum in the 1960s, Meneilly continued door knocking, presenting neighbors with the Good Neighbor Pledge. This pledge affirmed that “each person has the right to rent, buy, or build a home without restrictions,” and called on “all persons of good will” to “take an active role in bringing about freedom of opportunity in housing.” Meneilly’s door-to-door outreach and powerful sermons played a pivotal role in changing hearts and minds in the community.
Ruth Shechter, a Jewish fair housing advocate, played a critical role in supporting Meneilly’s pledge and broader fair housing efforts. She volunteered her time with a long list of fair housing and civil rights organizations in Johnson County and across the Midwest. Schechter served as president of the Shawnee Mission Housing Council, as a member of the Kansas Commission on Civil Rights, and as chair of the Plains State Region of the Anti-Defamation League. Schechter also served on the Kansas Advocacy Council on Civil Rights, an organization that was instrumental in passing the 1970 Kansas Fair Housing Act. Through her extensive advocacy work, Shechter changed policies and helped lay the foundation for further progress in fair housing policies.
Don Sewing, Jr., a real estate agent, also made significant strides in integrating the suburbs. In 1966, he and his family became the first Black homeowners in Fairway. Over the next decade or so, Sewing placed other Black families in homes across northeastern Johnson County using what he called the “scatter approach”— ensuring that more white homeowners had the opportunity to live near a Black neighbor and reducing the possibility of panic selling by white neighbors. Through his efforts, more than 60 Black families became homeowners in suburban Johnson County, a feat widely reported on in the media, including in the Wall Street Journal in 1969.
The work of Meneilly, Shechter, Sewing and other fair housing pioneers changed not only hearts and minds but also policies, helping to integrate homeownership in Johnson County. While their victories were significant, the work is far from over. Today’s fair housing advocates continue to build on these important histories and successes.
To learn more about fair housing, civil rights and redlining in Johnson County, visit Johnson County Museum’s online exhibit, REDLINED: Cities, Suburbs, and Segregation, available at jcprd.com/redlined.