NAREB HISTORY
Background, History, and Affiliates
The National Association of Real Estate Brokers, Inc. (NAREB) was founded in Tampa, Florida, in 1947 as an equal opportunity and civil rights advocacy organization for African American real estate professionals, consumers, and communities in America. The purpose of NAREB is to enhance the economic improvement of its members, the community at large, and the minority community which it serves. To unite those engaged in the recognized branches of the real estate industry including brokerage, management, mortgage financing, appraising, land development, home building, and allied fields for the purpose of exerting influence on real estate interests. Although composed principally of African Americans, the REALTIST© organization embraces all qualified real estate practitioners who are committed to achieving our vision, which is “Democracy in Housing.”
Local Black professional and real estate groups began forming in northern and southern communities in the 1880s. Most became members of the National Business League (NBL), founded by Booker T. Washington in the early 1900s. The NBL became the first advocacy association for Black national business trade organizations. Booker T. Washington was a noted businessman, educator, real estate investor, and advisor to several U. S. Presidents from the 1890s to the 1950s. Two local NAREB boards, founded in the 1920s in Harlem (NYC) and Dearborn (Chicago), represent the oldest, continuously active REALTIST © organizations that came out of the NBL and predate NAREB.
NAREB has played varying influential roles in the implementation of equal rights, fair housing, equal opportunity, and community development legislation at the local, state, and federal levels since its founding. Some significant policy achievements of NAREB were the first local fair housing legislation in 1962 in New York City, the first state fair housing legislation in 1963 in California, and the first national fair housing legislation in both 1947 and 1968. It was the 1963 California legislation that propelled NAREB into national prominence.
Specifically, after the 1963 Byron Rumford Fair Housing Act became law when signed by then Governor Edmund Gerald “Pat” Brown, Sr., the California Association of Realtors, backed by the National Association of Realtors, launched a successful ballot initiative, calling its results discriminatory and, therefore, against the California constitution. California REALTIST © played the leading role in opposing the ballot initiative and arguing against it in the California Supreme Court. Although African Americans had been granted permission to join realtor organizations in many states, including California, the failed realtor effort exposed the discriminatory culture.
Other significant REALTIST © involved legislative achievements include the creation of HUD in 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Community Reinvestment Act of…