In which case did the U.S. Supreme Court strike down a Louisville zoning law that limited African Americans and other minorities to specific areas of town?

• A. Brown v. Board of Education
• B. Plessy v. Ferguson
• C. Shelley v. Kraemer
• D. Buchanan v. Warley

Answer: (D)

Racial zoning and the limits of state power to segregate housing are being tested. In this case, the Supreme Court struck down the Louisville ordinance because it singled out where African Americans and other minorities could live based on race, using the police power to enforce segregation. The Court held that applying zoning to exclude people from certain areas violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s protection of equal rights and due process, since it deprived individuals of property rights and liberty based on race.

Brown v. Board of Education deals with school segregation, not housing or city zoning. Plessy v. Ferguson upheld segregation in public facilities under "separate but equal," not struck down such racial zoning. Shelley v. Kraemer concerned private racial covenants and whether court enforcement of those covenants could be compelled, not the validity of a city zoning ordinance itself.