Knocking on the door : the federal government's attempt to desegregate the suburbs / Christopher Bonastia.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [207]-225) and index.

1. Residential segregation : the forgotten civil rights issue -- 2. The divergence of civil rights policies in housing, education, and employment -- 3. The federal government and residential segregation, 1866-1968 -- 4. Conviction and controversy : HUD formulates its fair housing policies -- 5. Indirect attack : a housing freeze kills civil rights efforts -- 6. The recent past, present, and future of residential desegregation.

"Knocking on the Door is the first book-length work to analyze federal involvement in residential segregation from Reconstruction to the present. Providing a particularly detailed analysis of the period 1968 to 1973, the book examines how the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) attempted to forge elementary changes in segregated residential patterns by opening up the suburbs to groups historically excluded for racial or economic reasons. The door did not shut completely on this possibility until President Richard Nixon took the drastic step of freezing all federal housing funds in January 1973. Knocking on the Door assesses this near-miss in political history, exploring how HUD came surprisingly close to implementing rigorous antidiscrimination policies, and why the agency's efforts were derailed by Nixon."--BOOK JACKET.