In 1910, when Albuquerque’s Black population was 244, the city’s Black residents
worked as barbers, cooks, porters, and beauticians. There was segregation and
discrimination in public accommodation so there was a need for Black boarding
houses. There were restrictive covenants preventing Blacks from purchasing property
in certain neighborhoods. Theaters, restaurants, drugstores refused to serve
Blacks or forced them to wait until Whites and Hispanics were served.

Five men and one woman founded the Albuquerque National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) chapter in 1915. One of its first activities
that year was the chapter paying the tuition of Birdie Hardin in her unsuccessful
attempt to enroll in the University of New Mexico (UNM) to challenge its
racial exclusion policy. In 1921 UNM finally allowed open admission to all qualified
students. Nine years later, Romero Lewis, son of a local physician, became
the first Black medical graduate of UNM. The NAACP also helped maintain integrated
schools in Albuquerque, though other communities including Alamogordo,
Tucumcari, Clovis, Roswell, Artesia, Hobbs, Las Cruces, and Carlsbad took
advantage of a 1925 state law to establish segregated schools. The NAACP fought
discrimination in city and county employment and in public accommodations.
Places of public accommodation included resorts, amusement parks, restaurants,
hotels, and motels.

The Black population in Albuquerque grew slowly from 213 in 1920 to 613 in
1950. In the post-war period Blacks joined with Hispanics to launch a direct action
campaign to end discrimination. In September 1947 the University newspaper,
the New Mexico Lobo, published an article describing how George Long, a
university student, was denied service at a nearby café. University students boycotted
the restaurant, forcing the management to change its policy. Three months
later university students successfully boycotted a downtown Walgreen’s. This student
support for militancy generated the first University NAACP chapter.

Using a Portland, Oregon, anti-discrimination ordinance as a model, Herbert
Wright, the first Black UNM student body president, and George Long, then a
UNM law student, worked for two years to write the Albuquerque Civil Rights
Ordinance that prohibited discrimination in places of public accommodations, enacted
by the city commission on Lincoln’s birthday in 1952. The students had
formed a coalition with off-campus organizations including the NAACP, the Ministerial
Alliance, and the G. I. Forum, labor unions, and the Catholic Archdiocese
to enact the first civil rights ordinance in the intermountain west.

“Notes from Community Seminar on Integrated Housing,” a program at the University
of New Mexico Student Union in October 1960, indicate that discrimination
in public accommodations in Albuquerque had come into focus when the
Dean of San Jose College in California wrote that a foreign exchange student from
Ceylon had stopped in Albuquerque en route to California and had been refused
food in a city restaurant.

The Ordinance is believed to be one of the earlier municipal ordinances passed in
the U.S. since the beginning of WWII. It prohibited discrimination in places of
public accommodation, predating both federal and state civil rights public accommodation
laws. The Ordinance prohibited discrimination on the basis of race,
color, religion, and national origin or ancestry. Those who violated the Ordinance
were subject to a fine up to $300 or imprisonment in the City jail or both. Businesses
with two or more violations during any twelve month period were subject to
having their licenses revoked. Three years after the Ordinance was passed, the state
legislature enacted a similar statute, nine years before the Congress passed Title
VII of the national Civil Rights Act.

The 1952 Civil Rights Ordinance did not transform the lives of most Black New
Mexicans. More than 8,000 Blacks, or 1.2% of the population, lived in Albuquerque
in 1950. Most lived on the city’s east side and were unskilled laborers. The
NAACP was the only Black civil rights organization in the state. By the early
1950’s it had grown from the Albuquerque organization to include branches in
Roswell, Hobbs, Clovis, Carlsbad, and Las Cruces with a college chapter at UNM.
Alamogordo integrated its teaching staff in 1953; Hobbs desegregated its school
system in 1954. In 1954 APS hired Lauretta Loftus as the city’s first Black teacher.

By 1960 the Black population of New Mexico reached 17,063. During the decade
between 1950 and 1960, the city’s Black community increased 581 percent from
613 to 3,563. By the 1960’s Black professionals were attracted by employment
with the federal and state governments and local corporations in the state.

Discrimination in Housing
in Albuquerque

Lovie McGee, Albuquerque real estate broker and former member of the Albuquerque
Human Rights Board, states that discrimination was manifest in Albuquerque
housing from the 1940’s to 1960’s. She states that written in the covenants
of many city subdivisions was language stating that African Americans
were not allowed to purchase property within the subdivisions. These covenants or
agreements were legally enforceable by local and state law. Following in part is
the language of a Protective Covenant and Building Restriction Agreement of a
typical subdivision in the City of Albuquerque in 1950: “No person of African or
Oriental descent shall use or occupy any building or use any building or lot for
residential purposes. This covenant shall not prevent occupancy by domestic servants
of African or Oriental descent domiciled with an owner or tenant not prohibited
hereunder from using or occupying buildings or lots in the Addition for residential
purposes.”

Brenda Dabney, daughter of Virginia Ballou, recalls that the South Broadway area
was the locale where most Blacks lived in Albuquerque in the 1940’s through
1960’s. There was another small pocket where Blacks could reside on 7th Street
between Forrester and North Broadway. For the most part, the South Broadway
neighborhood was the population cluster for Blacks at the time.

Rena Bendaw, a long-time Albuquerque resident, also remembers South Broadway
as the place where Blacks put down roots in Albuquerque opening businesses
including beauty shops, barber shops, cleaners, shoeshine parlors, and nightclubs.
It is also the location of the first African American Church, Grants AME Chapel.
When newcomers such as railroad workers came into town looking for a place to
live, homeowners would rent them rooms until they could find permanent places
to live. The permanent home site would generally be in the same small pocket
area or neighborhood.

Virginia Ballou pursued her father’s dream to develop a subdivision for all citizens
called the East End Addition. Ballou’s father, Henry Outley, had the vision of
developing an area where Blacks could purchase property and build homes. The
East End Addition in the 1950’s was a mix of arroyos, prairie, and tumbleweeds.

Bordering on Virginia, Vermont, Lomas and Wyoming Streets, the area did not
have water, gas or electricity. The Albuquerque Tribune at the time stated in an
article that the East End Addition was just two dozen houses clustered on an empty
mesa beyond the eastern edge of Albuquerque. This subdivision has now been
deemed an historical neighborhood after developers tried unsuccessfully to acquire
it several years ago.

Real estate broker Lovie McGee believes that in some ways conditions are the
same in the real estate market as they were more than 30 years ago. Discrimination
is more subtle as covenants prohibiting the sale of properties to Blacks are now in
violation of the Albuquerque Human Rights Ordinance, the State Human Rights
Act, and the Federal Fair Housing Act. McGee says that even today some people
do not want Blacks in their neighborhoods, nor will they purchase a home previously
occupied by African Americans.

She reports that in today’s market there are many real estate agents who practice
“steering” which is illegal. Steering is an act intended to influence home seekers’
choice of a property on a discriminatory basis. This practice of channeling home
seekers interested in more valuable properties to less valuable areas has the goal of
either maintaining the homogeneity of an area or changing the character of an area
to create a speculative situation. This makes certain homes unavailable to home
seekers on the basis of race or national origin, a practice which is prohibited by
provisions of the federal Fair Housing Act. Steering tactics can be so subtle that
home seekers are unaware that their choice has been limited. McGee indicates that
it is estimated that more than 80% of the suits filed by the Department of Justice
against real estate licensees for violation of the federal Fair Housing Law from
1990 to 2000 involved steering.

Passage of the Albuquerque
Fair Housing Practices Ordinance

The Albuquerque City Commission passed the city’s historic Fair Housing
Practices Ordinance in 1963. Despite opposition by realtors and home builders, the
City Commission unanimously passed the Ordinance prohibiting discrimination in
housing and lending in Albuquerque. The Ordinance created a Fair Housing
Advisory Board of seven members each to serve for four years. The Board’s
mission was to study the problem of housing discrimination, report at least
annually to the Commission, aid persons discriminated against, and investigate
their complaints.

Oliver Salisbury, an Albuquerque resident, is recognized for his impact on passage
of the Albuquerque Fair Housing Ordinance. He addressed the Commission and
described his and his wife’s struggle to purchase a home in Northeast
Albuquerque in the early 1960’s. He stated from his personal experience that
realtors would give Blacks title that was not clear; they would delay settlement on
property; they would not follow up on offers. He described the humiliation that he
and his wife experienced in their effort to buy a home.

Oliver and Carnis Salisbury, as a couple, worked together in an effort to achieve
Fair Housing legislation in the city. Carnis Salisbury is recognized for organizing
in support of the legislation and her ability to bring members of various economic
and social strata of the Black community together to support and work to fight
discrimination in housing. She was a catalyst for motivating the Black community
to speak out about housing discrimination and other civil rights issues. The
Albuquerque Human Rights Office awarded the Salisburys the Human Rights
Award in 1990 for promoting and supporting human rights and human dignity,
equal access, and the elimination of discrimination.

After hearing arguments for and against the measure, the Commission moved to
pass the Fair Housing Practices Ordinance. Albuquerque became the third city in
the United States to have a Fair Housing Ordinance after New York City and
Toledo, Ohio.’“This is an attempt to codify the conscience of our community,”
stated a Commission member as he moved to approve the Ordinance. The
Journal’s account of the measure’s passage included this description of the
audience following the bill’s passage:

“The roar of the departing crowd, filled with the bill’s happy backers,
forced the Commission into recess. The racket continued in the
corridor when the meeting came back to order. A police officer
moved the crowd down the hall.”