A housing development in rural Arkansas is looking for new people to settle within its 160 acres, but there's a catch: Applicants must be white and heterosexual, and there's a rigorous screening process that investigates both. The community in Ravendale is called Return to the Land, and it's the subject of a lengthy story by Debra Kamin in the New York Times. She interviews the two founders, who say they are within their rights because of legal exemptions to fair-housing laws that have been carved out for private associations and religious groups. But critics disagree and the state attorney general is investigating. As a result, Kamin's piece suggests the legal fight that seems imminent could test decades-old anti-discrimination laws in the US. The dispute is captured in two quotes:
- "Federal and state law, including the Fair Housing Act, prohibit housing discrimination based on race, period," says ReNika Moore, director of the racial justice program at the American Civil Liberties Union. "Repackaging residential segregation as a 'private club' is still a textbook violation of federal law."
- "I would rather the precedent is set and the discussion is had while there's a relatively favorable cultural and legal climate for it," says one of the community's founders, 35-year-old Eric Orwoll, referencing anti-DEI initiatives and the like being rolled out in the federal government. "So if we're going to fight this battle—and it's a battle that's going to be fought at some point—it better be now."
Read the
full story, in which Kamin tours the community and talks to residents who make their case for living there. During a visit to Orwoll's office, she notes that he turned a copy of Adolf Hitler's
Mein Kampf around to hide the title from a photographer's lens.
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