Pasadena Commission Wants to Hear Hahn and Hahn’s Presentation on Firm’s Work With Hate Campaign Victims

The Human Relations Commission on Wednesday voted to recommend a presentation from Hahn and Hahn regarding the law firm’s efforts to work with local groups adversely impacted by a hate campaign conducted decades ago aimed at preventing people of color from buying property in Pasadena.

Attorney Herbert L. Hahn and former Pasadena Mayor A.I. Stewart led the drive for white-only covenants in Pasadena real estate ownership nearly 100 years ago.

“Whites only” covenants were legal clauses in property deeds that barred people of color from buying, leasing, or occupying property. The covenants were used across the country after the Great Migration of Black people from the south. A 1917 Court ruling declared them unconstitutional but allowed for private agreements to continue. The Supreme Court ruled the covenants unenforceable in 1948, but many of them remain tucked away in cities across the country.

In July, representatives from local law firm Hahn and Hahn told Pasadena Now that the firm has started a dialogue with local groups adversely impacted by a decades-old hate campaign aimed at preventing people of color from buying property in Pasadena. The campaign was led in part by one of Hahn and Hahn’s lead attorneys some 80 years ago.

In a statement to Pasadena Now on Thursday, the firm said: “We’ve received the Commission’s invitation and are in the process of communicating with our coalition members about accepting the invitation. Hahn and Hahn is in no way running away from this history. On the contrary, we are committed to understanding what happened in Pasadena in the 1930s and 40s, including our attorney’s role in those events, and how we can play a meaningful part in creating change now and in the future.” 

“Today, more than 85% of Hahn and Hahn’s personnel identify as women and/or members of one or more traditionally marginalized groups, so many of us have a personal stake in shining a light on this story.”

Although the laws were struck down, homeowners in several states have discovered the covenants while researching the deeds on their homes.

Locally, the Pasadena Improvement Association was formed in 1939 two weeks after African Americans sued to desegregate the City of Pasadena municipal pool.

African-American residents were allowed to use the pool one day a week. It was drained and refilled for white residents the next day.

“While we would have preferred that this reprehensible aspect of our history never happened, we have been grateful for the opportunity to connect with our community in a more meaningful way and to live more deeply into the values of the firm we have become,” Hahn said in its statement last year.

In the statement, the firm said the actions were “antithetical to the values of the firm we strive to be.”

The firm reportedly has brought together the existing Pasadena organizations that participated in the Pasadena Improvement Association and organizations representing the historically marginalized communities most adversely impacted by Pasadena’s housing policies and convened an ongoing dialogue.

“This group will likely develop and implement proactive measures which aim to alleviate the historical effects of housing discrimination in our community and support existing programs that address racial disparities in housing and home ownership.”

The stated goal of the Pasadena Improvement Association was to place “race restrictions on all of the Pasadena residential Districts now occupied by Caucasians” to prevent non-whites, especially African Americans, from being able to buy most of the homes in Pasadena.

The incident began just six years after the federal government launched a housing program aimed at increasing, while segregating, the nation’s housing stock through efforts like redlining where realtors used color-coded maps to keep African Americans out of certain neighborhoods.

That practice continued legally for decades in areas including Pasadena until the Fair Housing Act of 1968 was passed.

Even the GI Bill was administered under Jim Crow law initially making it hard for Black veterans who fought for the country in World War II to take advantage of the benefits they had been promised.

“It’s going to stay on our list and we look forward to the time that they are ready,” said Commission Chair Sandy Greenstein said. “But I think they’re working on it, they’re behind it. And I think there will be a product at some point from their work. And I think when they’re closer to that product, they’ll be ready to give us a presentation.”

The commission voted last year that the City Council remove AL Stewart’s photograph from City Hall. However, the item has not been brought before the Council so far.