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THE KENTUCKY KERNEL, Thursday, April 29,

15

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Special Report: Negro
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nt Housing

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Kernel Photos by Sam Abe 11

'By Virtue Of Myself I Am Utterly, Indisputably Alone"

In the foreground a group of South American students talk with two American girls. In the background, a Negro student is alone at the table.

Survey Indicates Mousing Discrimination

By KENNETH HOSKINS
Town housing, a problem facing the majority of University
students, presents an especially
trying situation for the Negro.
A recent study would indicate
that he is being repeatedly discriminated against.
This racial discrimination in
town housing was revealed in a
survey recently made public by
the Campus Committee on Human Relations.

Color Bar
Is Real
To Many
By FRANK BROWNING

Dr. Pritam Singh, who had his
own house in India, found that
in Lexington his turban and dark
skin made "No Vacancy" the
answer at over 50 inquiries for
a place to stay.
Issam Safady, of Jordan, who
says that he easily passes for a
European, feels that finding a
room presents about the same
problems for him as for any
American student.
Inci Ozdeniz, from Turkey,
who was on a full scholarship,
at Midway Junior College, met
her present landlady through a
friend, and as a result she has
"lived like another girl in the
family for four years."
These three cases are typical
of the foreign student housing
situation and can be summarized
by the statement ofaPakistanian
student, AshrafAli:
"There is not much prejudice
against nationalities, but the few
peoples I've encountered don't
like to rent to a different skin
color . . . maybe because of
complaints from neighbors or
residents in business, not from

students."

Ben Averitt, international

stu-

dent advisor, said that University
policy in general is that foreign
students find their own housing.
"Concerning housing, our main
Job is keeping tab on spaces
available." However, Mr. Averitt
said that in January I9G5, "we
Continued On Pare 9

The survey indicated widespread reluctance by landlords to
rent their apartments or rooms
to Negroes. Only 6.5 percent of
the apartment landlords rent to
Negroes.

However, 61.4 percent of the
landlords interviewed rent their
apartments to foreign students.
Negro students, as shown by
the survey, are living further from
the campus than either foreign
or white students. Eighty percent of them are living nine or
more blocks from campus.
The facts and percentages obtained in the survey were taken
from questionnaires answered by
Negro, white, and foreign students living in town and by landlords operating in the University
area.
Random samples were taken
to select the white and foreign
students. The 15 Negroes represent the total number of University Negroes living in town
housing.
Lexington landlords were selected for the survey by random sample from the
lists of the University Town
Housing Office. The sample included both those who rent
and those who rent
rooms.
Only 6.5 percent of those who
rent apartments rent to Negroes.
Of those who rent rooms 9.5 percent rent to Negroes.
One-hundr- ed

Foreign students are able to
rent apartments from 61.4 percent of the apartment landlords
and rooms from 57.1 percent of
those who rent rooms.
Personal reasons were given
for not renting to Negroes by
53.S percent of those apartment
landlords who refused Negroes
and 55.5 percent of the room
renters who refused Negroes.
Other reasons given for refusing Negroes included neighbors' objections and the lack
of applications by Negroes for
housing.
However, only six of the landlords would agree to rent to
Negroes should they apply.
In responding to the survey,
GO
percent of the Negroes indicated that they had been refused
housing by 'white landlords for

reasons other than "no vacancy"
and had been discriminated
against.
The remaining 40 percent
made no attempt to obtain housing from white landlords.

Though foreign students were
able to rent from a much higher

percentage of the landlords, 25
percent of them stated that they
had been refused housing for
reasons other than "no vacancy"'
and 31.2 percent said they had
been discriminated against.
Two white students also reported discriminatory refusals for
housing. One was Jewish, the
other of Italian lineage. Both
are native Americans.

HOUSING COMPARISONS
DISTANCES FROM CAMPUS

Negro
0
live
20
live
0
live
80
live

White

Foreign
0--

2

3--

5

6--

8

9- -?

blocks
blocks
blocks
blocks

38.0
25.0
12.5

18.7

live
live
live
live

0--

2

3--

5

6--

8

9--

?

blocks
blocks
blocks
blocks

live
live
live
live

13.3
53.3
13.3

20.0

0--

2

3--

5

6--

8

9-

-?

blocks
blocks
blocks
blocks

NUMBER OF ROOMS PER UNIT
Negro i

White

Foreign

room
2 rooms
3 rooms
? rooms

53.0
00.0
46.6
00.0

31.2

1

12.5

37.5
12.5

4--

room
2 rooms
3 rooms
? rooms

13.3
20.0

1

1

2
3

53.5
13.3

4--

4--

room
rooms
rooms
? rooms

MONTHLY RENT PER UNIT
Negro
33.0
26.0
20.0
20.0

pay

$25-5-

pay

$51-7-

5

pay

$76-10-

Foreign
18.7
pay
315
pay

0

0

pay

18.7
18.7

$100-- ?

pay
pay

White
$25-5-

0

13.3

$51-7-

5

$76-10-

0

53.3
26.6

$100-- ?

pay
pay
pay
pay

6.7

$25-5-

0

$51-7-

5

$76-10-

0

$100-- ?

Instructor Feels UK Should Help
By JUDY GRISHAM

"The University should play

a part in encouraging people who
rent to students to rent without
discrimination of race and religion," said Cyrus Johnson, instructor in the Department of
Sociology.
Mr. Johnson is active in the
Campus Committee on Human

Relations which began last
semester and is headed by the
Rev. Doug Sanders, pastor of the
campus Christian Fellowship.
The Human Rights Committee has been conducting a survey
of landlords, Negro and foreign
students, and
white students in an effort to
determine the problems involved
when Negro and foreign students
try to find housing.
"As a freshman, he's taken
care of," said Mr. Johnson, "but
after that, there is no central
housing bureau that can give
him any guidance."
"He knocks on doors and asks,
'Is there a room for rent?' and
he will be turned away."
"They survey," he said, "is
oriented toward finding out the
attitude in general toward housing Negro students."
"Some of the questions that
we hope to answer," he said, "are
'Do they have to live farther
away?' and 'Must they pay
more?' "
Although the survey is basical
Non-Lexingt-

the rental of housing without
discrimination could be made
general in the community a total
Negro area would have to be
found. But, if all were opened equally, the Negro would
not seek to congregate in a particular area, but would spread out
over the community.
"As I understand it," Mr.
Johnson continued, "all housing financed by the government
must be available for sale without regard to creed or color, but
realtors can pretty well manipulate this."
"There is such a minority of
Negroes on campus," he said
in concluding. "But there should
be some kind of
organization
which will say to people housing students that they must rent
without discrimination."

ly oriented toward students, it

bears "an indirect relationship to
faculty."
"It is my understanding," Mr.
Johnson said, "that there are
few to no housing opportunities
for middle and upper class
Negroes outside the Negro community."
He indicated that a Negro
faculty member would not be
content to live in these conditions.
"As UK hires qualified faculty
members, particularly of the Negro race, it must provide housing," Mr. Johnson explained.
"I feel that the University
in terms of faculty is going to have
to help make available adequate
housing."
He commented that unless

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Thla Negro student and his roommates sometimes find it hard to
enter their 4,cIoset" from the bedroom area.

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