Civil Rights Organizations File Lawsuit Against Whites-Only Housing Development in Arkansas

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May 20, 2026

From Legal Defense Fund

This statue sits in Ravenden, the town nearest to the proposed site of Return to the Land (Vccarmi, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Today, the Legal Defense Fund joined Relman Colfax PLLC and Legal Aid of Arkansas to file a lawsuit against Return to the Land (RTTL), a white nationalist organization seeking to establish a segregated, whites-only settlement in Arkansas. The lawsuit is brought on behalf of Michelle Walker, a woman of Jewish ancestry who is married to a Black man and has biracial children. The complaint alleges that RTTL discriminated against Walker by denying her the opportunity to purchase land because of her Jewish ancestry and her family’s racial background.

RTTL is a white separatist organization attempting to create an all-white nation within the United States by building smaller settlements that exclude anyone who isn’t a white, Christian, heterosexual homebuyer. Its founders believe white people are genetically superior to all other races and advance the view that Jewish people are engaged in a plot to eliminate the white race.

In the summer of 2025, Walker learned that RTTL was offering land for sale in Arkansas at an exceptionally low price. Interested in the investment potential of the land, she applied to purchase land in the RTTL community. Throughout the application process, Walker was asked a series of questions about her ancestry and religion, as well as that of her husband and children. According to the complaint, RTTL ultimately denied Walker’s application because of her religion, ancestry, and the race of her family members, which are incompatible with RTTL’s goal of establishing an all-white community.

The complaint seeks to stop RTTL’s discriminatory housing practices and obtain relief for violations of the Fair Housing Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1866, 1981, 1982, and 1985, the Arkansas Fair Housing Act, and the Arkansas Civil Rights Act of 1993.

[…]

“This lawsuit sends the message to RTTL and any other white separatist organizations seeking to perpetuate segregation—the rule of law remains intact. Our nation will not abandon the fair housing rights we have fought so hard to uphold and enforce,” said John Relman, Founding Partner of Relman Colfax.

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Earlier this year, Pennsylvania politicians blocked white-only towns, which remind us of Sundown Towns.

More Black news.

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