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Darrick and Kimberly Hobson-Hollowell only wanted their son, a first-grader, to attend good schools. That's why they told their real-estate agent they wanted to buy a new home in suburban Detroit's Grosse Pointe area.

Instead, they were steered toward buying a home in neighboring Harper Woods.

"At the end of the meeting, [the real-estate agent] says out of nowhere, 'Why are you guys looking for homes in Grosse Pointe?' I said, 'For educational purposes' and he said, 'Have you ever considered moving to Harper Woods?'" said Hobson-Hollowell.

Harper Woods had bigger homes and lower taxes and the Hollowells, who are black, still could send their son to Grosse Pointe schools. After buying in Harper Woods, however, the Hollowells learned the real-estate agent--Century 21 Towne & Country, which helped sell their old home as well as buy their new home--was being sued for racial steering. The real-estate agency was not showing black families homes in predominantly white areas while at the same time not showing white families homes in predominantly black areas.

Grosse Pointe is one of the most segregated communities in the United States. In the 1960s, homebuyers looking in Grosse Pointe had to pass a point system. The maximum score on the questionnaire was 100, and to qualify, homebuyers needed at least a 50. However, those of Polish descent needed 55, those of Greek descent needed 65, those of Italian descent needed 75, those of Jewish descent needed 85, and "Negroes" and "Orientals" did not apply, according to Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia.

The result is a community that is only 1.2 percent black today, immediatly adjacent to Detroit where blacks make up 81.2 percent of the population, according to the Census Bureau. In addition, the tax base of Detroit has diminished as the strong tax base from middle- to upper-class whites moved to the suburbs.

Now, a lawsuit filed by the Hollowells and the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) against Detroit-based Century 21 Towne & Country and Century 21 Real Estate LLC claims the real-estate agent violated federal law with its alleged steering practices.

"Even when African Americans asked to see homes in white neighborhoods, they were steered to the city, and when whites asked to see homes in the city, they were taken outside," said Shanna Smith, president and CEO of the NFHA.

The NFHA randomly tested 14 agents working for Century 21 Towne & Country, of which nine violated the law by steering both black and white homebuyers to neighborhoods based on their race.

Century 21 Towne & Country would not comment specifically about the litigation but, in a statement e-mailed to DiversityInc, the company denied the allegations.

The company's alleged steering tactics came to light during the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)'s Housing Discrimination Study 2000. The HUD study found that steering is practiced in several cities throughout the United States. Armed with HUD's discrimination study, NFHA conducted its own investigation in the Detroit area and at the suggestion of HUD focused on Century 21 Towne & Country.

Hobson-Hollowell learned that her family might have been steered to Harper Woods after reading a news story about NFHA's lawsuit. The story featured a picture of the Century 21 Towne & Country office where the Hollowells met their real-estate agent. Now they're concerned that the rule allowing some non-residential children to attend Grosse Pointe schools will be changed.

"I was angry and I was embarrassed because I thought I would have seen that coming, but I didn't. I felt I had allowed this to happen to me," says Hobson-Hollowell. "We're nervous because shortly after we [moved] here the news said at Grosse Pointe's schools there were too many black kids. So that put us on notice."

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