This research project assesses the role of anti discrimination law and federal policy in two striking trends of the postwar period: the decline in racial segregation in American cities after 1970 as documented in Cutler, Glaeser and Vigdor (1999) and the convergence in the black-white homeownership gap over approximately the same period, as described by Collins and Margo (2001). It is often argued that fair housing policies, while too weak to reduce segregation as much as proponents had hoped,nevertheless played a role in the fall in segregation that did occur. However, there is as yet little compelling evidence to support this hypothesis. I study national, state and local fair housing policies in interventions on segregation and African-American homeownership. Such estimates would be of substantial historical interest, but more importantly may be able to inform current government policy on housing discrimination.