Living Apart: How the Government Betrayed a Landmark Civil
Rights Law George Romney was behind plan to end segregation by
Nikole Hannah-Jones ProPublica October 30, 2012 As HUD
Secretary, George Romney aimed to end segregation in housing.
This photo, by the Detroit The plan, George Romney wrote in a
confidential memo to aides, was to use his power as secretary of
Housing and Urban Development to remake America's housing
patterns, which he described as a "high-income white noose"
around the black inner city. Romney ordered HUD officials to
reject applications for water, sewer and highway projects from
cities and states where local policies fostered segregated
housing. Nixon intervened immediately. In a 1972 "eyes only"
memo to Ehrlichman and H.R. Haldeman, another aide, Nixon
explained his position. "I am convinced that while legal
segregation is totally wrong that forced integration of housing
or education is just as wrong," he wrote. Romney, the former
governor of Michigan and father of Republican presidenti