This is what Hillary Clinton was talking about when she said Trump denied apartments to black people
At a rally in Miami on Saturday, Hillary Clinton drew a sharp contrast between her running mate, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, and her opponent Donald Trump during introductory remarks.
“While Tim was taking on housing discrimination and homelessness, Donald Trump was denying apartments to people who were African American,” Clinton said.
Clinton didn’t elaborate, but she’s probably talking about a 1973 civil rights case involving Trump Management Inc.—led by its newly minted president, a 27-year-old Donald—which was accused of housing discrimination by the U.S. Department of Justice.
At the time, the Trump real estate empire was more known for residential housing in Brooklyn and Queens, not the gaudy Manhattan skyscrapers that would come later, and Donald had recently taken over from his father, Fred Trump.
According to court documents, staff members claimed superintendents at Trump buildings would mark the rental applications of black or otherwise “undesirable” renters with a “C” for “colored.” The lawsuit also alleged black applicants were frequently quoted higher rental rates.
Trump continues to deny any wrongdoing in the suit to this day, with a Trump attorney telling The Washington Post there was “absolutely no merit to the allegations” earlier this year. But Trump’s denial at the time is a bit more telling: In a 1973 press conference denouncing the lawsuit, Trump said that the company wanted to avoid renting to welfare recipients, but did not discriminate based on race.
After two years of fighting the suit, Trump eventually settled the case. The terms of the agreement prohibited the company from further discrimination and required it to advertise that minorities had an equal opportunity to seek housing at its properties.
In typical Trump fashion, the Post quotes Trump as writing in his autobiography that, “In the end the government couldn’t prove its case, and we ended up making a minor settlement without admitting any guilt.”
It would’ve been a historic first had the settlement required Trump to admit he was wrong.