Michigan Roundtable to prosecute FHA for discriminatory practices in 20th century

[Irvine Laird]

http://miroundtable.wordpress.com/2009/04/06/mock-trial/

According to Tom Costello's blog, the Michigan Roundtable is organizing a mock trial of the Federal Housing Administration for its discriminatory policies from the 1930s to 1970s. Students of housing in Detroit (e.g. those who read Thomas Sugrue's "Origins of the Urban Crisis") will recognize the FHA's role in propagating the disintegration / segregation of Detroit during the middle part of the 20th century.

The mock trial is a dramatic idea that could generate popular attention toward a part of our history that the person on the street likely does not know or understand.

[Mikeg]

.....and according to the blog, Phase 2 will be a "Truth and Reconciliation" process. I wonder who the FHA participants are and will they be granted amnesty in return for their testimony? Wouldn't it be better just to hold a Nuremberg-style trial and hang them afterward? Oh wait, the original FHA perps from the 1930s, 40s and 50s are probably already dead, aren't they.

Oh well, I'm sure that the "Mock Trial" and "Truth and Reconciliation" participants will come out of this feeling better and that's what this is all about - spending precious grant money to let the legal community feel like they've accomplished something and to satiate those who are too willing to settle for dialogue in place of action.