Prof. Myron Orfield Writes Op-Ed in Star Tribune About Subsidized Housing Testimony

Professor Myron Orfield, Earl. R. Larson Professor of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Law and Director, Institute of Metropolitan Opportunity, wrote an op-ed in the Star Tribune about how a local church leader’s testimony regarding the high expense of low-income housing was stricken from the public record. The Rev. Alfred Babington-Johnson spoke before the Minnesota subcommittee of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission in June saying low-income housing was too expensive and was seldom built in white communities. He also testified that government affordable-housing programs were designed to provide jobs to low-skilled Black and brown workers, but that the poverty-housing industry mainly hired affluent whites. In response, the state housing agency argued that his concerns were “racially insensitive” and needed to be removed from the public record. But Prof. Orfield said that “Babington-Johnson’s claims have merit. The body striking his testimony was created by Congress to assure claims like Babington-Johnson’s were ‘thoroughly investigated.’ The U.S. Civil Right Commission was designed to aid victims of discrimination, not silence them.”