"Where Do We Go From Here?" From MLK’s Dream to Our Responsibilities to Make Housing Fairer Than We Found It
As featured in Inman News.
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| Caption: Photo by Unseen Histories on Unsplash. |
Dr. King’s 1967 question isn’t rhetorical for real estate professionals. Here are six simple action items that answer his call with a 2026 flair, ensuring we can make the housing industry fairer than we found it.
“I Have a Dream” is a globally famous speech (delivered in August 1963), from which you may be able to beautifully quote excerpts all these decades later. But can you quote any excerpts from “Where Do We Go From Here?”
In August of 1967, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., spelled out our collective responsibilities, not simply dreams, of the Civil Rights Movement with less than a year of his life remaining. As we celebrate what would have been Dr. King’s 97th birthday, it is high time for us to hold his dreams for America in tandem with our responsibilities, specifically in the real estate industry.
“And before discussing the awesome responsibilities that we face in the days ahead, let us take an inventory of our programmatic action and activities over the past year.” (King, 1967)
First, Dr. King reviewed how far we as a nation had come through the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. It involved students like my dad when he was a schoolboy in the Mississippi Children’s March, up to some of the elders at that time, like W.E.B. Du Bois, writing, marching, donating, driving, organizing, speaking, boycotting, and a whole host of other activities (a good reminder that there is not only one way to participate and spur change).
To sum it all up, Dr. King (1967) proclaimed:
“We made our government write new laws to alter some of the cruelest injustices that affected us. We made an indifferent and unconcerned nation rise from lethargy and subpoenaed its conscience to appear before the judgment seat of morality on the whole question of civil rights.”
Did you know that during the U.S. Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, there were some formerly enslaved people still living (like my dad’s great-grandmother, affectionately nicknamed “Big Momma”, who had run away from slavery as a little girl)? That is both encouraging because a “change is gonna come” (RIP Sam Cooke) and telling in regard to the amount of fortitude that is still needed in line with Dr. King’s parting words in this speech (1967), “Let us realize that the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice”.
From there, Dr. King lays out the heavy responsibility (interestingly, he did not call it a burden) for about 30 minutes during his speech. For those of us in the real estate industry, the responsibility can be summed up to harness the tools of the industry (i.e. market access, capital flow, and professional influence) to repair the "cruelest injustices" of the past and build an equitable future where everyone has access to the "promised land" of a safe, secure, and dignity-affirming home. It requires moving from passive fair housing compliance, especially as federal enforcement and funding are cut, to active fair housing advocacy driven by a "divine dissatisfaction."
Let's be real. Posting a black square on Instagram or having a "fair housing" page on your brokerage site is a start, not the pinnacle. Dr. King (1967) referred to it as having a "high blood pressure of creeds and an anemia of deeds." We've got the creeds, slogans, logos, and framed codes of conduct down. But the deeds? The actual, on-the-ground work in a time of federal fair housing rollbacks is necessary now more than ever.
A "divine dissatisfaction" is that feeling you get when you see the recent stats on unfair housing and know that some in the real estate industry may still look the other way. It’s the ick you may feel when you hear a coded comment about "those neighborhoods." That's the feeling we get when we see the same patterns of not being shown homes in a certain community that some of our living parents and grandparents were denied as well. Dr. King's message in 1967 resonates in 2026, as it encourages us to let that dissatisfaction fuel a better way of doing business (what I call a fair housing decoder).
This isn't simply about cool t-shirts and catchy hashtags (those are a start). It's about power, which is "the ability to achieve purpose," as Dr. King defined it. As quiet as it is kept, we all have power in our networks. So much so that when many of us spoke out about the perils of a 50-year mortgage (including me), the current presidential administration announced within the last week that it is going back to the drawing board, whew. Again, we all have influence! Here are some simple ways to further use that influence to decode unfair housing:
Learn why the neighborhoods that you serve look the way they do, not with vague, mere market trends, but with specific history. Research how your neighborhood got here:
Was there redlining? See if your neighborhood had a redlining map here: https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/introduction
Restrictive covenants?
Highway construction that erased communities?
Urban flight?
Urban renewal?
Other forms of displacement with low or no compensation?
Steering?
Subprime lending?
Blockbusting?
Professional exclusion of agents, lenders, appraisers, etc., based on what are now protected classes, such as national origin, sex, race, etc.?
Denial of U.S. veteran benefits like housing rehab programs?
Sundown towns?
Audit your own algorithms, not just legally but also ethically. Are your lead generation practices, social media ads, "preferred lender" lists, and so forth accidentally replicating old redlines?
Call it out. Challenge language in the office or on forum threads that undermines fair housing (inclusive of fair lending). What stories do you hear and tell about "good" vs. "up-and-coming" neighborhoods? "Exclusive neighborhood", “no play area” and “perfect condo for singles” are often not neutral terms in real estate ads but may indicate unfair housing is amok.
Treat every single prospective client (that’s everybody!) with the absolute respect they deserve, honoring their "somebodiness," as King (1967) called it, regardless of their background and identity.
Create a business plan on how you can better serve those who live in the historically underserved or outright avoided areas.
Utilize your position within boards, associations, and with industry leaders (such as the "chain stores" referenced in Dr. King's 1967 speech) to advocate for equitable practices, inclusive marketing, and investment in historically excluded, underfunded, or underserved neighborhoods.
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| Caption: Excerpt from the Fair Housing DECODER class highlighting unfair housing practices that have and still do exist in various parts of the U.S. |
Better than most, real estate professionals understand that a home is not merely a listing. For generations denied access to U.S. land and homeownership, a home is reclaimed dignity, legacy, and built wealth. It's repairing what Dr. King called the "cruelest injustices" (1967). In 2026, let’s continue advocating for a housing market that actually deserves the word “fair” regardless of the political climate. Ultimately, let’s work to leave this profession in a fairer state than we found it.
Reference
King, M. L., Jr. (1967, August 16). Where do we go from here? [Speech transcript]. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/where-do-we-go-here
Dr. Lee Davenport is an MBA graduate school professor, executive business coach, and author (including of Be a Fair Housing D.E.C.O.D.E.R., How to Profit with Your Personality, and over 270 news bylines). Dr. Lee trains and empowers business students, executives and real estate professionals around the globe on how to work smarter with their unique personalities and how to “advocate, not alienate,” so everyone has access and opportunity in real estate and business.
Sound off - I would love to hear from you! Give me a shout on Instagram and YouTube. Here's to your success! #LearnWithDrLee
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