The ACLU of Maryland is building opportunity out of the legacy of segregation. Our fair housing work began with the filing of the landmark civil rights lawsuit, Thompson v. HUD, on behalf of 14,000 Black families in public housing. From that came the Baltimore Housing Mobility Program, which gives families and children the chance to move from segregated, disinvested, neighborhoods with high poverty to areas of opportunity in city and suburban neighborhoods that have better schools, lower crime, and more job opportunities. 


Census maps show the striking continuation of segregation in Baltimore.

Maps to see a Chronology of Baltimore Segregation:

1940 Map

1950 Map

1960 Map

1970 Map


1980 Map


1990 Map

2000 Map

See a 2003 map of where African American families were able to use housing vouchers.


ACLU Slideshow: Building Opportunity from the Legacy of Segregation

See a presentation on segregation in Baltimore


NAACP Legal Defense Fund joins ACLU in the most important housing desegregation lawsuit in a generation

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Expert testimony and maps from Dr. Gerald R. Webster, Chair, Department of Geography, University of Alabama

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Get the facts about housing segregation in Baltimore 

Read the Statement of Facts filed by the ACLU in Thompson v. HUD