Home and Community: The 50th Anniversary of the Fair Housing Act.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act, signed on April 11, 1968 by President Lyndon B. Johnson just days after the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. Watch the Illinois REALTORS® video commemorating the Act’s anniversary. Then “history comes alive” with stories from the Bicentennial Plaza interpretive panels related to fair housing, featuring local historians who researched the panel stories for this new public space along the Jackson Street Corridor between Fifth and Sixth streets in downtown Springfield. Bicentennial Plaza – A REALTOR® Community Partnership will be officially dedicated August 26 2018 and is dedicated to President Abraham Lincoln’s vision for America as a country with opportunity and equality for all. 

Program 

– Welcome by Pam Van Alstine, Chair, Illinois Bicentennial Coordinating Committee of Springfield, host of the Town Hall Series

– Matt Difanis, Illinois REALTORS President: 50th Anniversary of the Fair Housing Act, Illinois REALTORS fair housing video and monument

– Bicentennial Plaza Panel Discussion (pictured left to right):

• Mark Johnson, Historian, Historic Preservation Division, Illinois Department of Natural Resources
• Tim Townsend, Historian, National Park Service, Lincoln Home National Historic Site
• Justin Blandford, Illinois Governor’s Mansion Curator
• Alderman Herman Senor, Ward 2 City of Springfield

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow: Springfield’s Bicentennial Town Hall Series – Presented by the Illinois Bicentennial Coordinating Committee of Springfield, Sponsored by the Illinois REALTORS®.