Mississippi couple evicted from trailer park, apparently because husband is black

In late February, Erica Flores Dunahoo and her husband, Stanley Hoskins, were turned out of an RV park in Tupelo, Mississippi, after the owner found out the husband is black. Dunahoo told The Clarion-Ledger that the owner, Gene Baker, called her up a day after she paid the first month's rent, saying, "Hey, you didn't tell me you was married to no black man." When she replied that she didn't think that was a problem, Dunahoo said, Baker reportedly said: "Oh, it's a big problem with the members of my church, my community, and my mother-in-law. They don't allow that black-and-white shacking."

Baker did not change his mind after Dunahoo explained they were married, not "shacking" — "Oh, it's the same thing," he reportedly told her — and that her husband isn't a "thug" but a sergeant in the National Guard, she said. "Me and my husband, not ever in 10 years have we experienced any problem," not even "dirty looks." Baker told The Clarion-Ledger's Jerry Mitchell that he wouldn't have kicked the couple and their two kids out except that "the neighbors were giving me such a problem." And if neighbors have a problem, he added, "the best thing you can do is what the neighbors want to do." When Mitchell asked if Baker would rent to another interracial couple, Baker said, "I'm closing it down, and that solves the problem."

Dunahoo reported the incident to the NAACP, explaining, "I just want it to be where everybody is treating everybody equally." She and her husband have since rented a space at another RV park, paying $50 a month more, $325. Interracial marriage has been legal in Mississippi since 1967, when the Supreme Court ruled that laws banning marriage based on race are unconstitutional; the 1964 Civil Rights Act barred discrimination due to race, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 forbade not renting to people based on "race, color, religion, sex, or national origin." You can watch Dunahoo talk about her eviction below. Peter Weber

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