In the face of heated controversy surrounding local discriminatory housing policies, The Stanford Daily published this memo on Jan. 31, 1964 – just over four months before the historic Civil Rights Act was signed.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

(Distributed by the Palo Alto-Stanford Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)

1. The individual must decide, specifically, what he can do, for each of us can find ways to implement our religious ideals and democratic beliefs.
2. You and your neighbors and friends can form a voluntary association of citizens of different races and creeds working for open housing and social justice and harmony in intergroup relations.
3. You can organize a self-survey to determine community attitudes toward equal housing opportunities in your area as was done in Seattle, Washington, and Germantown, Ohio.
4. You can make known your willingness to welcome a minority group member to your community, your school, your organization or your home. You can speak forthrightly for justice and equality.
5. You can speak forthrightly for justice and equality.
6. You can arrange for discussion on equal opportunity in housing.
7. You can support nondiscriminatory housing legislation.
8. You can insist upon an open occupancy policy if you rent, sell or buy a home.
9. You can influence the housing industry. Builders, mortgage lenders, real estate brokers, government agencies must be encouraged to accept the principle of a free housing market. They have a moral and social responsibility to do so and it is in the economic interest of the industry and the nation that the housing market be broadened.

Transcribed by Josie Hodson