Great News!

Thanks to the rapid response by the ACLU, supported by scores of AtMP members who wrote letters to local officials and signed petitions to the governor, the leaders of Black Jack will stop saying that unmarried families aren't family enough to live in their town.  This is a cautionary tale about family diversity, housing discrimination, and the importance of grass-roots action.

On May 28, 2008 the Associated Press filed this report from Black Jack, MO -- "Another unmarried couple is being told by a suburban St. Louis town they’re not welcome. A man, his girlfriend and her three children recently bought a house in Black Jack in north St. Louis County. But because Toi Pruitt and Joe Pulliam and the children don’t meet the town’s definition of a family, they couldn’t get an occupancy permit. In 2006, Black Jack revised its definition of a family after initially refusing a permit for Fondray Loving, Olivia Shelltrack and their children. That family had filed a federal lawsuit. The new ordinance allows unmarried couples as long as the children are related to both. None of the children are related to Pulliam. The city attorney says he’s willing to fight for the ordinance in court."

On July 17, 2008 the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported: "Black Jack has extended its definition of a family to include two unrelated individuals plus the children of either partner. The ordinance, adopted Tuesday night by the City Council, was designed to guard against more legal difficulty from the city's pre-2006 ordinance that denied occupancy permits to unmarried couples. The 2006 change allowed unmarried couples with children together to get occupancy. That law was passed after an unmarried couple with children between them sought to live on Parkwood Drive but were denied a permit. Eventually, the city paid the couple $28,000 in damages and legal fees. A recent application for a permit from an unmarried couple seeking to live on Persimmon Bend Lane with three children, not by each other, prompted the change. The ordinance was enacted with little comment Tuesday night. "We have avoided more noise," Mayor Norman McCourt said.""

AtMP extends heartfelt thanks and congratulations to everyone who made noise about this ridiculous injustice!