It seemed so simple to John Kennedy during the 1960 campaign. If elected, he promised, he would end racial discrimination in federally aided housing "by a stroke of the presidential pen." But months went by without the stroke. Negroes grew impatient, took to mailing him pens as sarcastic reminders. Newsmen questioned him about the delay at several press conferences. On the President's visit to Los Angeles last August, the local chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality greeted him with placards: PICK UP THE PEN, MR. PRESIDENT.
But since he already had troubles aplenty in trying to get legislation through the House, the President was wary of doing anything more to anger Southern Congressmen. He had to consider, too, that on Election Day 1962, the promised executive order might hurt Democrats in the South more than it would help Democrats in the North—the New Frontier could count on most of the Northern Negro vote anyway.
Last week, with the elections out of the way and a new Congress elected, the President finally delivered that stroke of the pen. After the long wait, it was anticlimactic. Kennedy's order bars "discrimination because of race, color, creed or national origin" in the "sale, leasing, rental or other disposition" of housing 1) owned or operated by the Federal Government, 2) built with the aid of federal grants or loans, or 3) financed by FHA or other federal mortgage guarantee programs. That leaves some big gaps. The provisions with teeth do not apply to housing built before the order was issued —although they do include a vague directive to federal housing officials "to use their good offices and to take other appropriate action" against discrimination in the sale or rental of housing already in existence. Also, the order does not apply at all to housing purchased under "conventional" financing (without federal mortgage guarantees)—which means three out of four one-family dwellings.
The order is aimed mostly at builders, developers, bankers, state and local officials. No fines or prison terms are provided for noncompliance, but the order arms federal officials with sharp-bladed threats to wield: for builders, refusal of FHA and Veterans Administration financing for their projects; for banks, loss of FHA and VA mortgage business; for states and municipalities, loss of federal grants and loans for slum clearance and urban renewal.
What practical effects the order will have depend largely upon how vigorously federal officials try to enforce it. Federal Housing Administrator Robert C. Weaver, the man who will do most of the enforcing, will presumably try hard enough. Weaver is a Negro.