On July 10, 2019, the ACLU of Georgia and Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC filed a lawsuit against a landlord for evicting Victoria Sutton, who is white, because she invited an African-American family to her home. According to the lawsuit, the landlord told Ms. Sutton the following in a tape-recorded conversation.
“I don’t put up with n------ in my [house] and I don’t want them in my property.”
“Maybe you like black dogs, but I don’t. So just get your stuff and get out.”
“I don’t allow n------ in my property and everybody knows that … Get out as quick as you can.”
The lawsuit asserts that the landlord threatened to call the police and Child Protective Services and to harm Ms. Sutton physically if she attempted to contest the eviction.
Under the federal Civil Rights Act, the federal Fair Housing Act and the Georgia Fair Housing Act, landlords are prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, be it for their tenants or their tenants’ guests.