Renters Claim They Were Evicted For Being An Interracial Couple

While federal law explicitly prohibits the consideration of “race, color, religion, sex, familial status, or national origin” in determining who can rent or buy a home, some Americans still face this illegal discrimination for something as simple as finding a place to live.

A married couple in Mississippi tell the Clarion-Ledger that they were given the boot from their RV park after the landlord learned that the wife is white and the husband black.

The wife, whose husband is serving with the armed forces in Afghanistan, said she rented the spot at the park on Feb. 28, and the landlord was very polite, even inviting her to church.

But then the next day, she said she received a phone call from the landlord.

According to the wife, he told her, “You didn’t tell me you was married to no old black man.”

“I didn’t think it was important or a problem,” she told the man, who allegedly replied, “Oh it’s a big problem.’”

She claims that the landlord told her that the members of his church, community, and family “won’t have that white and black shacking stuff.”

The wife says she tried to explain that she and her husband were not “shacking up” but were happily married. To which, she says, the landlord replied that it was the “same thing.”

She says she made repeated attempts to reason with the landlord, pointing out that her husband — a sergeant in the U.S. Army — had served this country for 13 years, but “There was no reasoning with him.”