Restrictive Covenant Litigation Cascade: Sipes, Mays, and McGhee Cases

In the late 1940s the NAACP mounts a series of coordinated legal challenges to racially restrictive covenants. Key companion cases to Shelley include McGhee v. Sipes in Detroit and Hurd v. Hodge in Washington DC. The DC case extends the ruling to federal courts. Together these cases begin dismantling the legal architecture of housing segregation while leaving the economic and social infrastructure intact. Real estate associations continue enforcing informal segregation through blockbusting and steering.