Lawsuit claims Arkansas group rejected woman's land purchase due to Jewish ancestry, Black husband

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A real estate broker says an organization denied her the opportunity to purchase land in an Arkansas development because of her Jewish ancestry, and because she has a Black husband and biracial children, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court.

The lawsuit, filed in Arkansas on behalf of Michelle Walker, names Return to the Land, a development whose owners have said they must personally confirm that applicants are white before they are accepted, its Ozarks chapter and five officers. It says Return to the Land founders are “explicitly attempting to establish an all-white community.”

The lawsuit also calls Return to the Land a white nationalist organization and says it's in violation of federal and state fair housing and civil rights acts.

“Its founders believe that white people are genetically superior to other races, advance the view that Jewish people are engaged in a plot to eliminate the white race, and advocate for segregated white communities for the purpose of creating a separate all-white nation state that will help avoid ‘white genocide,’” the lawsuit said.

For decades, Blacks and other minorities were restricted from buying or renting homes in some neighborhoods or areas due to racial covenants built into mortgages and leases. Prospective homebuyers also faced redlining in which mortgages and loans were denied based on race.

Walker, a real estate broker who lives in St. Louis, applied to buy land last year in the town of Ravenden, Arkansas, due to its below-market price. Ravenden is about 150 miles (241 kilometers) northeast of Little Rock and just south of the state line with Missouri.

She was asked questions during the application process about her ancestry, religion and her family, according to the lawsuit.

Walker is white and belongs to a Christian church. Her Jewish ancestry is on her mother's side.

She is represented in the lawsuit by the Relman Colfax law firm, the Legal Defense Fund, and Legal Aid of Arkansas.

Return to the Land did not respond to an email Wednesday from The Associated Press seeking comment on the lawsuit.

On its website, Return to the Land promotes itself as a private membership association “for individuals and families with traditional views and common continental ancestry." In addition to the its Ozarks Regional Chapter which covers parts of Arkansas, Missouri and eastern Oklahoma, Return to the Land says it has chapters around the United States.

After reports that Return to the Land was eyeing the Springfield, Missouri-area for a whites-only community, Springfield’s city council said in a Facebook post last July that there was no place in the city “or anywhere, for such a divisive and discriminatory vision.”

Pennsylvania’s state House in April passed — by a ultra-slim vote of 101-100 — a bill to block the creation of whites-only housing communities. House Bill 2103 followed Return to the Land’s believed intention to expand to Pennsylvania and other states.

The legislation now is before the Pennsylvania Senate.

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Williams is a member of The Associated Press Race & Ethnicities team. He reported from Detroit.