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Harry Truman
The president of the United States from 1929 to 1933, during the beginning of the Great Depression, and the Secretary of Commerce from 1921 to 1928. While Secretary of Commerce, Hoover promoted racist zoning laws and founded the Better Homes in America organization, which tried to convince white people to move to the suburbs to “avoid ‘racial strife.’” As president, he doubled down on this message and pushed for restrictive covenants that prevented black people from purchasing homes in white neighborhoods.
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Herbert Hoover Character Timeline in The Color of Law
The timeline below shows where the character Herbert Hoover appears in The Color of Law. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 3: Racial Zoning
...support from the federal government, prominent city planners, and “outspoken segregationists” like Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover, who advocated for zoning laws everywhere to prevent conflict and protect the value of white...
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Chapter 4: “Own Your Own Home”
...white Americans to care about capitalism and repudiate communism. Homeownership became “a ‘patriotic duty.’” Herbert Hoover, then Secretary of Commerce, led a group called Better Homes in America, which aimed to...
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Chapter 5: Private Agreements, Government Enforcement
...government determined that restrictive covenants were legal “voluntary private contracts” in 1926, and presidents like Hoover made them a cornerstone of housing policy. But it did not “turn [from a] recommendation...
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