"This house is going to be sold to whites only," said the owner, Rufus Matthews, according to court papers filed by Pitts, who is black. "It's not for colored." (New York Times News Service, 5/1/05)
Now in 1944, the deed to Mr. Matthew's house included a covenant preventing sale of the house to anyone except Caucasians. By 1948, the US Supreme Court ruled that racially biased housing covenants are unconstitutional and non-binding. The illegality of this measure failed to impress Mr. Matthews, but Ms. Pitts decided not to let things just drop. She contacted the Fair Housing group Housing Made Equal (HOME) who sent out a black test buyer--who got a similar response, this time caught on tape. HOME decided to take things to court.
Accused of violating the Virginia Fair Housing Law, Matthews faced serious legal consequences. However, a provision of the law allowed the Virginia States Attorney General to hold up the case to attempt an out-of-court settlement. So, what would Jerry Kilgore's office do in one of the most clear cut legal cases of discriminatory housing fraud? Would he assure prompt prosecution and enforcement so that Ms. Pitts could buy her house?
In a word, no.
Jerry Kilgore waited--a year went by...
Jerry Kilgore waited--another year went by...
Jerry Kilgore then quit as attorney general, his handpicked sucessor decided to allow Matthews to settle for the lightest possible wrist slap--token fair housing classes without obligation to sell, ultimately a response fully unacceptable to the Ms. Pitts.
So the questions remain--why did Kilgore prevent resolution of a fully unconstitutional action? What possible reason could he have for preventing prompt resolution of an incontrovertibly racist action?
When asked about this question at a recent Urban League candidates symposium, Mr. Kilgore's assigned surrogate reacted with horror, claiming that there would be no way that Jerry Kilgore would have ever avoided bringing full justice to a case like this.
But as many in that audience knew, over two years have passed with the case in legal limbo and there is no aim to ever allow it to ever go to trial. That is justice, Kilgore-style.
In the 1960s, Martin Luther King Jr. pointed out that with racism, "justice deferred is justice denied." We depend on our government to ensure a prompt and effective justice system to ensure that critical wrongs--like indefensible acts of racism--are not sustained. How little would MLK expect that so many decades later, an Attorney General like Jerry Kilgore could abuse a statute issued so many decades earlier than MLK's own pronouncement.
Today the case remains open and Nealie Pitts remains living in rental housing, waiting for the day she can buy her dream home.
Justice has been denied, to Ms. Pitts, all minorities and every Virginian who expects fairness from our government. Send appropriate thanks to Jerry Kilgore on election day (elect Tim Kaine who actually has used his legal career to do meaningful things to protect fair housing)...and then also elect Creigh Deeds as new Attorney General, to ensure this case finally goes to trial.