By Jeffrey W. Hicks

A half-century ago, the Fair Housing Act was enacted to prohibit discrimination in housing based on race, color, creed and national origin. The law also supported NAREB's efforts toincrease Black homeownership which we believe serves to increase wealth and other economic outcomes for Black Americans.

We have since experienced highs and lows in the journey towards economic empowerment and Black homeownership. While sometimes challenged, we are not discouraged. And, we have learned vital lessons along the way.

The National Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB) has advocated for Black Americans to own their homes since 1947, and we are proud to play a leadership role in that struggle. But this is not a solitary endeavor. We must grow a "Community of Concern" by partnering and actively involving civil and human rights organizations, community-based and social service organizations, business groups, and the faith-based community-our oldest and most trusted institution. We must collaborate to create strong, viable communities that help to stabilize Black Americans and their families through homeownership.

In 1970, two years after the passage of The Fair Housing Act, Black homeownership was 41.6 percent. It reached its height in 2004 at 49 percent. Today, Black homeownership stands at 42.1 percent, almost the same as nearly 50 years ago. The economic downturn of a decade ago hurt many Black homeowners with high foreclosures, upside-down mortgages, and financial upheaval from which many are still struggling to recover.

Today, economic segregation remains a problem. Urban centers, long the home of Black Americans, are being gentrified. Many with deep community roots are being forced out by rising taxes and skyrocketing housing values.

While obvious obstacles like Jim Crow segregation no longer exist, we still face formidable obstacles to owning homes. Obstacles like credit scoring, which is based not on how diligently we pay our bills, but on how much consumer debt we can amass. Obstacles like crippling student debt, which impacts Black Americans deeply. Obstacles like unfair mortgage lending practices.

Despite these challenges, we know that wealth can be built through education, through financial literacy, through creating and growing our Community of Concern to support homeownership. This is how Black America educates its children and how we set up businesses-by using equity from our homes to invest in ourselves, our families and our futures.

We stand on the shoulders of NAREB founders and visionaries like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who spoke to NAREB in 1967 about the need for "middle-class Negroes to ... publicly identify with the problem of poverty which engulfs the life of the masses."

NAREB's motto is "Democracy in Housing," and we will continue to fight for that. We must continue to be vigilant. We must continue to EDUCATE Black Americans, to ENCOURAGE Black Americans, and do everything we can to EMPOWER Black Americans to build wealth, to build stability, and to invest in our futures through that most fundamental part of the American Dream: homeownership.

Jeffrey W. Hicks is the 30th president of the National Association of Real Estate Brokers.