Summary

In 1952, when their apartment was scheduled to be torn down due to the Lanham act, Wilbur Gary and his family purchased a home in Rollingwood—a suburb of Richmond, California. Rollingwood was built with restrictive covenants, but the Supreme Court had ruled such covenants illegal four years earlier. Yet, when the Garys attempted to move in the neighborhood association attempted to enforce the covenant and buy the Garys’ home from them, when these tactics did not work protests were staged on the Garys’ front lawn, including mobs gathering, bricks being thrown at their home, and crosses being burned on their front lawn. Local and state law enforcement refused to protect the Garys, the NAACP and a communist party affiliate organized security for the Garys. The state of California, under pressure from the NAACP, eventually stepped in to protect the Garys, but protests continued...