Leslie Knox was just a child in the 1960s when her city near Detroit faced allegations of deliberately destroying Black neighborhoods to drive out residents.
Now, decades later, the retired nurse has returned to Hamtramck, settling into a newly built two-story home on Gallagher Street. As she decides how to furnish it, she watches TV from a fold-up chair, relieved that she only has to cover property taxes and insurance—without a mortgage.
Knox is among the last beneficiaries of a landmark legal settlement that obligated the small city to construct 200 homes for victims of racial discrimination or their families. The lawsuit, originally filed in 1968, turned into one of the longest-running civil rights housing cases in U.S. history.
