malcolm's visit to smethwick was "no accident"; an official policy of racial segregation was attempted to be put into place in smethwick's housing allocation, with houses on marshall street in smethwick being let only to white british residents. in 1964, a delegation of white residents successfully petitioned the conservative council to compulsorily buy vacant houses to prevent non-whites from buying the houses. this, however, was prevented by labour housing minister richard crossman, who refused to allow the council to borrow the money in order to enact their policy.