A group building a “whites-only” housing community in the Ozark Mountains area of Arkansas has been sued for its alleged violations of fair housing laws.
The founders of Return to the Land have sought to bar anyone who isn’t white and heterosexual from joining their community, which had about 40 members as of last summer, The New York Times reported last year. At the time, co-founder Eric Orwoll told the outlet: “Seeing someone who doesn’t present as white might lead us to, among other things, not admit that person.”
Now, the group is facing a lawsuit from Michelle Walker, who filed her complaint on Wednesday in the Eastern District of Arkansas. This marks the first civil case accusing the group of discrimination, according to The NYT.
According to her complaint, Walker wanted to purchase land in the community last year and filled out an application, which asked about her ancestry and religion.
Walker’s lawsuit alleges that Return to the Land denied her “based on her religion, ancestry, and the race of her family members, which are incompatible with RTTL’s goal of establishing an all-white community,” and that the group’s actions “constitute blatant and brazen violations of long-standing federal and state fair housing laws.”
Walker, who is of Jewish ancestry, is married to a Black man and has biracial children, according to the complaint.
She’s seeking to “stop RTTL’s discriminatory housing practices,” her attorneys said in a statement. Attorneys from Relman Colfax PLLC, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Legal Aid of Arkansas are representing Walker.
Reed Colfax, a co-managing partner at Relman Colfax, said in a statement: “Ms. Walker has been deprived of her housing and civil rights, including the right to purchase land and build housing.”
“A whites-only community is illegal, discriminatory, and unacceptable,” added Lee Richardson, the executive director of Legal Aid of Arkansas.
Public records did not list an attorney for Return to the Land. The Independent has attempted to contact the organization for comment.
When asked about the lawsuit, Orwoll told The NYT: “It’s not something we hadn’t anticipated. This is going to be a competition between our right to freely associate and then civil rights laws, which seem contradictory to our claims.”
Orwoll said he believes Return to the Land will win the legal battle, citing the First Amendment and the right to free association.
