"Three doormen were told to discourage blacks who came seeking apartments when the manager was out, either by claiming no vacancies or hiking up the rents. A super said he was instructed to send black applicants to the central office but to accept white applications on site. Another rental agent said that Fred Trump had instructed him not to rent to blacks. Further, the agent said Trump wanted 'to decrease the number of black tenants' already in the development 'by encouraging them to locate housing elsewhere.'"
The article explains that Trump's reaction was to claim
that the suit was a "nationwide drive to force owners of moderate and
luxury apartments to rent to welfare recipients."
"'We are not going to be forced by anyone to put
people...in our buildings to the detriment of tenants who have, for many
years, lived in these buildings, raised families in them, and who plan
to continue to live there. That would be reverse discrimination,' he
said. 'The government is not going to experiment with our buildings to
the detriment of ourselves and the thousands who live in them now.'"
