April 13, 2008
HUD Fair Housing Screening of Brick by Brick: A Civil Rights Story
It was a pleasure to present Brick by Brick: A Civil Rights Story to an Atlanta audience of hundreds of fair housing advocates and experts from all over the country yesterday. The group was commemorating the fortieth anniversary of the Fair Housing Act, passed in the wake of Dr. King’s assassination in 1968, and was part of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s annual Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity Policy Conference.
To be honored with showing this documentary on a landmark fair housing battle to many of the people who do the hard and honorable work of advocating for and enforcing fair housing laws in America was a wonderful gift. It was even more heartwarming that the film was so well received, since this group knows better than anyone about the realities of fair housing struggles.
The screening was of particular significance to me as a filmmaker. Hearing, as I did, so many stories from the trenches of lawyers, organizers, city fair housing officers, non-profit advocates and federal employees, I come away more convinced than ever that America has all the know-how and talent necessary to build more inclusive communities—and that we need only to muster the will to make it a priority.
Tapping the human capital of the nation is what’s at stake in making equitable access to housing a reality for all— along with the benefits that come with inclusive communities: education, job opportunities, municipal services, and political muscle. When America more fully realizes the potential in making this a significant part of our political agenda, the country will benefit enormously— by generating the dynamic energy of millions of citizens whose power is undermined by lack of adequate and inclusive housing opportunity.
Meeting some of the people who are doing this work, even as the country lumbers through a housing crisis of undetermined proportions, makes a person optimistic about our ability to find the will to make housing opportunity a reality, rather than a promise unfulfilled.
Posted by billkav at April 13, 2008 04:35 PM
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