What if someone told you that you could not live in a neighborhood because of your skin color? That used to be legal. On April 11, 1968, President Johnson signed the Fair Housing Act. This law made it illegal to refuse to sell or rent a home to someone because of their race. Before this law, discrimination in housing was common across the United States. Banks often refused to lend money to Black families who wanted to buy homes in white neighborhoods. Real estate agents would steer Black buyers away from certain areas. Some neighborhoods had written rules called covenants that said only white people could live there. These practices trapped many Black families in overcrowded neighborhoods with fewer resources, worse schools, and less access to jobs. The Fair Housing Act was passed one week after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. King had been fighting for fair housing before his death. After his murder, protests erupted in more than one hundred cities. Congress, which had been delaying the bill for two years, passed it quickly. The law gave families the right to file complaints if they faced discrimination when trying to find a home. It was one of the last major civil rights laws of the 1960s.