--- title: Presidential Debate: History Behind Trump's 1970s Bias Case description: The 1973 lawsuit was mentioned briefly during the first presidential debate, but it speaks to a long history. canonical: https://time.com/4508889/presidential-debate-1970s-bias-donald-trump/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-28T14:43:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:42:05.707Z article:section: History og:title: Trump's 1973 Discrimination Case Was Part of Larger Case og:description: The 1973 lawsuit was mentioned briefly during the first debate. og:url: https://time.com/4508889/presidential-debate-1970s-bias-donald-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt83dd66d4392fc4a9/6988a79e5f570f6297b22a79/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-25.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: TIMEPOL First Debate og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump's 1973 Discrimination Case Was Part of Larger Case twitter:description: The 1973 lawsuit was mentioned briefly during the first debate. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt83dd66d4392fc4a9/6988a79e5f570f6297b22a79/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-25.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump's 1973 Discrimination Case Really Was Part of Something Larger > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Top Moments Of Clinton And Trump's First Debate [Watch (HLS stream): Top Moments Of Clinton And Trump's First Debate](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/yoaypmKJ.m3u8) (1:53)  _Published 2016-09-27. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump squared off at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., Monday for the first of three presidential debates_  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Sep 28, 2016 2:43 PM UTC  Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks during the presidential debate with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., Monday, Sept. 26, 2016. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks during the presidential debate with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., Monday, Sept. 26, 2016. Drew Angerer—Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Sep 28, 2016 2:43 PM UTC During the first Presidential debate on Monday night, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton asked viewers to remember that her opponent had “started his career” with a 1973 lawsuit brought by the Justice Department “because he would not rent apartments in one of his developments to African-Americans, and he made sure that the people who worked for him understood that was the policy,” as Clinton [put it.](http://time.com/4508768/presidential-debate-trump-clinton-transcript/) Republican nominee Donald Trump responded briefly, noting that his company’s involvement was merely part of something larger: “We, along with many, many other companies throughout the country … were sued. We settled the suit with zero—with no admission of guilt.” It is true that there was no legal decision about whether or not the Trump Management Corporation did engage in discriminatory practices. It is also true that the case was part of something bigger. Throughout the 20th-century civil-rights movement, housing discrimination remained one of the most intractable and important barriers to full racial equality in the United States: in the suburbs and in cities, minorities (especially black Americans) found that there were numerous barriers to their buying or renting homes. Those barriers, from [restrictive covenants](http://www.bostonfairhousing.org/timeline/1920s1948-Restrictive-Covenants.html) to [redlining,](http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/05/the-racist-housing-policy-that-made-your-neighborhood/371439/) kept neighborhoods segregated. New York City had been [one of the first places ](http://time.com/vault/issue/1957-12-16/page/20/)in the nation to ban racial discrimination in some private housing, opting in 1957—eight years after making the same decision for public housing—to implement penalties for apartment landlords who refused minorities. But, even when local laws banned such practices, they often returned in subtler forms. [_Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter_](http://time.com/newsletter) In 1966, when the House introduced a bill to do the same federally, on President Johnson’s urging, it was [heavy with loopholes](http://time.com/vault/issue/1966-08-19/page/22/) but was still, by TIME’s reckoning back then, one of the most controversial civil-rights bills of the era. Not only did it concern private property, but it also affected the entire country, meaning that Northern whites would have to confront their own biases instead of just watching the Jim Crow South squirm. (At that point, the magazine reported, about a third of white Americans—down from 45% in 1963—told pollsters they would consider moving out of their homes if a black family moved in next door.) That bill died, but the [legal justification for fair-housing laws ](http://time.com/vault/issue/1966-09-23/page/86/)was getting ever [firmer](http://time.com/vault/issue/1967-02-03/page/53/). Sure enough, two years later, in the wake of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., a new version of the law passed. It was an important step, as TIME [explained](http://time.com/vault/issue/1968-04-19/page/26/): --- > “” --- And yet, in 1970 TIME [declared](http://time.com/vault/issue/1970-09-07/page/63/) that integrating housing was proving even more difficult than integrating schools. Lax enforcement of existing laws, difficulty with zoning restrictions and a federal reluctance to get involved in local matters all contributed to the problem. One response to this situation was the direct investigation of landlord compliance with the law. One such initiative was known as Operation Open City, a federally funded project under the auspices of the New York Urban League. As an Open City [report](https://archive.org/stream/operationopencit00plan#page/n5/mode/2up) from 1967 put it, the project began in 1964—even before the federal law changed—to fight “the housing discrimination which keeps non-white New Yorkers in racial ghettos.” Though the organization was meant primarily to help minority families directly with their moves, it was found that a “high percentage” of the people who moved with the help of Open City had to file discrimination complaints as part of the process. As one 1970 New York _Times_ report [explained](http://www.nytimes.com/1970/08/08/archives/data-on-lefrak-said-to-come-from-urban-league.html), starting in 1969 the group began gathering information on many of the city’s landlords, with white “checkers” visiting buildings where black applicants had been turned away; if the white applicant was _not_ denied, that became evidence. In 1973, the Department of Justice decided to bring charges against the Trump Management Corporation, for violation of the 1968 law. An investigation had found evidence that minority tenants were being denied rentals at Trump properties or redirected to other Trump housing developments that were less white. The suit was at least partly a result of an investigation by Operation Open City, according to the[ initial New York _Times_ report on the case. ](http://www.nytimes.com/1973/10/16/archives/major-landlord-accused-of-antiblack-bias-in-city-us-accuses-major.html)At the time, Trump called the charges “absolutely ridiculous.” [The Washington _Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-the-governments-racial-bias-case-against-donald-trumps-company-and-how-he-fought-it/2016/01/23/fb90163e-bfbe-11e5-bcda-62a36b394160%5Fstory.html) and others have re-investigated, in light of Trump’s candidacy, what went on in the 1970s at Trump Village and what happened during the lawsuit. According to the _Post_ analysis, though the Trumps were always careful to make it clear that the settlement was not an admission of guilt, as the candidate said on Monday, the government portrayed the settlement as a win. “It was a big deal,” Elyse Goldweber, a former Department of Justice lawyer, told the _Post_. Media coverage of the case conformed to that view. “Trump promises to end race bias,” the New York _Times_ headline [declared](http://www.nytimes.com/1975/06/11/archives/trump-promises-to-end-race-bias-realty-management-concern-reaches.html?%5Fr=0). As _This American Life_ [deftly showed in 2013](http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/512/transcript), discriminatory rental practices are still very much a problem—and the tactics developed back in the 1960s are still in use, with testers posing as renters to test landlord bias. “If you’re discriminated against in getting housing, there’s a decent chance you don’t know it happened. Maybe you don’t even suspect it,” note the show’s Nancy Updike. “The whole idea seems like a throwback.” ## Transcript [ APPLAUSE ] Hey, how are you, Donald? I'm good thanks. [ APPLAUSE ] I have a feeling that by the end of this evening I'm going to blamed for everything that's ever happened. Why not? Why not? Yeah, why not? [ LAUGH ] The next segment, we're continuing the subject of- Well at least I have a plan to fight ISIS. No, no. You're telling the enemy everything you want to do. No, we're not. See, you're telling the enemy everything you want to do. We are outlining- No wonder you've been fighting, No wonder you've been fighting ISIS your entire adult life. I think my strongest asset maybe by far is my temperament. I have a winning temperament I know how win . >> Wow okay . >> [ LAUGH ] l I will release my tax returns, against my lawyer's wishes, when she releases her 33, 000 emails that have been deleted. He has really started his political activity based on this racist lie that our first black president Was not an American citizen. We're talking about racial healing in this segment. What do you say to Americans- Well, I say nothing because I was able to get him to produce it, he should've produced it a long time before, I say nothing. Donald supported the invasion of Iraq. Wrong. That is absolutely- Wrong. Proved Over and over again. Wrong. He actually. When you have 4, 000 people killed in Chicago by guns from the beginning of the presidency of Barack Obama, his hometown, you have to have stop and frisk. Now, in all fairness to Secretary Clinton. Yes, is that okay? Good, I want you to be very happy. [ LAUGH ] Well I hope the fact checkers are turning up the volume and really working hard. Good night everyone. 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