
***Today's
#tbt
History Note brings
us into the
not-so-distant past
of the mid-20th
century to look at a
housing
discrimnation case,
Duncan vs. Flynn,
and the parts three
different Longmeadow
citizens had in its
origins and outcome***
During the years
that followed the
second world war,
many white Americans
experienced
unprecedented
prosperity in large
part due to programs
like the GI Bill
that enabled them to
more easily purchase
homes than ever
before.
Unfortunately, their
fellow black
citizens were
frequently denied
these same
opportunities.
Massachusetts
Commission Against
Discrimination
(MCAD) was a state
body created in 1945
to enforce state
level
anti-discrimination
laws, its 1965
Annual Report
indicated that
several Longmeadow
citizens both
participated in and
fought against this
disgraceful
practice.

In February of 1965,
David Duncan III, a
40 year old African
American WWII combat
veteran and
manufacturing
engineer at Pratt
and Whitney, was
looking to purchase
a home when he came
across a listing in
a local newspaper
for 24 Pine Hill
Road in Springfield.
Mrs. Duncan called
the listing agent,
Robert J Flynn, who
was operating his
real estate
business, the Robert
J. Flynn Real Estate
Agency, out of his
house in Longmeadow.
During the phone
conversation, Flynn
informed Mrs. Duncan
that the house was
for sale for a price
of $21,500 (about
$190,000 in October
2021 dollars) and
they agreed to meet
on February 6th so
the couple could see
the house. After
touring the house,
Flynn informed the
Duncans that the
price of the house
was $25,000 (about
$221,000 in October
2021 dollars). When
Mr. Duncan protested
that the real estate
broker had told his
wife over the phone
only a few days
earlier that the
price was only
$21,500, Flynn
retorted that his
wife must have
misheard him.
A little more than a
week after the
showing with the
Duncans, Mr. Flynn
received a call from
Elizabeth Grandison,
a white woman, also
asking to see the
house for sale.
Unbeknownst to
Flynn, David Duncan
III had contacted
MCAD to file a
complaint about his
experience trying to
purchase 24 Pine
Hill Road and the
Commission had sent
Mrs. Grandison to
“test” Duncan’s
claims. Ms.
Grandison was a
member of the
Springfield Urban
League and civil
rights activist from
Longmeadow. She
inquired about
seeing the house and
Mr. Flynn offered to
show it to her that
day. After touring
the house, Flynn
informed Mrs.
Grandison that the
house was priced at
$21,500 but he would
be willing to accept
an offer as low as
$20,000 (about
$177,000 in October
2021 dollars).
After the showing,
Mrs. Grandison
reported back to
MCAD and informed
them of the results
of the showing and
confirmed the charge
of discrimination.
Based on Grandison’s
and the Duncans’
testimony, MCAD
Commissioner and
Longmeadow resident
John F. Albano,
filed an injunction
against Flynn in
Hampden County
Superior Court in
order to prevent
Flynn from selling
the house to anyone
except Duncan.
Albano had been
appointed to the
commission in 1964
and concurrently
served as president
of the
Springfield-Chicopee-Westfield
AFL-CIO. Albano
brought his nearly
30 years of
experience fighting
against unfair labor
practices and used
it to fight against
racial
discrimination.
In court, Flynn’s
attorneys along with
those of the
property owner Jean
C. Tierney argued
that they should be
permitted to sell
the house because
Mr. Duncan was
misrepresenting the
facts. They asserted
that they had an
asking price of
$25,000 and were
only willing to go
as low as $21,500
and that the Duncans
had told Flynn that
the highest they
were willing to pay
was $20,000. The
Duncans reiterated
their story of the
phone pricing vs.
the in-person
pricing. Judge
Francis L. Lappin
attempted to mediate
and try to have the
two parties come to
an agreement.
However, when it was
apparent that the
defendants were not
going to come down
in price low enough
for the Duncans, he
dismissed the
injunction request
allowing Tierney and
Flynn to go about
their business of
selling the home.

While MCAD had
failed to force the
house in question to
be sold to the
Duncans, the
commission still
needed to have a
public hearing to
assess if
discrimination had
taken place. On
September 20, 1965,
with the benefit of
both Duncan and
Grandison’s
testimony the MCAD
commissioners
Malcolm C. Webber,
Ben G. Shapiro and
Ruth M Batson found
Robert Flynn guilty
of housing
discrimination. MCAD
subsequently ordered
Mr. Flynn to stop
discriminating
against anyone he
interacted with as
part of his real
estate business, he
must include in all
of his newspaper
advertisements for
his real estate
business that they
were “Equal Rights”
listings and he was
required to report
in writing the steps
he had taken to
comply with the
order to MCAD.
After the ruling, in
October of 1965,
Flynn sued MCAD to
obtain a restraining
order to prevent the
ruling from going
into effect. In
February of 1966,
Judge Joseph Ford
ruled that Flynn
needed to comply
with the order. As a
result, Flynn placed
the ads like the one
pictured.

In April of 1965,
Elizabeth Grandison
and her husband sold
their house in
Longmeadow and moved
to Boston.
As for Mr. Duncan,
in the years
following the
decision, he did
successfully
purchase a home in
Springfield, MA
where he lived until
he passed away at
the age of 80 in
2005. Duncan found
much success and was
a fixture in the
Springfield
community in the 40
years following the
decision. He
received numerous
awards including the
“Eyes on the Prize''
award in 1996 from
WGBY and induction
into the Black and
Gold Society of his
alma mater the
Wentworth Institute
of Technology. He
was a member of the
VFW, was very active
in the Freemasons
serving in numerous
roles over the
years, treasurer of
the Alden Street
Baptist Church, and
on the Board of
Directors of both
the Dunbar Community
Center and the
Springfield Girls
Club Family Center.
Perhaps most
notably, Duncan
served as the first
African American on
the Springfield
Police Commission
and served as
Chairman during the
period of civil
unrest following the
assasination of Dr.
Martin Luther King,
Jr.
Albano continued to
serve as an MCAD
commissioner until
1969. After the end
of his time on MCAD,
he continued to play
a large role in the
labor movement in
Western
Massachusetts. In
Longmeadow, he spent
many years serving
the Jewish Home for
the Aged. When he
died in 1979, his
funeral had over 500
mourners in
attendance and
included political
and labor leaders
from across the
state.
Mr. Flynn continued
to operate his real
estate business in
Longmeadow after the
MCAD decision until
his death in 1969.
Flynn never gave a
reason for
discriminating
against Mr. Duncan,
specifically
declining to comment
to the press after
MCAD’s decision. The
behavior that Flynn
and others like him
displayed created a
system that denied
black people the
ability to equitably
purchase a house.
This practice
affected black
homebuyers in the
mid-20th century and
this lost economic
opportunity was
passed on to their
children and their
children’s children.
For example, if Mr.
Duncan had been able
to purchase this
house at a price of
$20,000 and then
sold it today for
Zillow’s current
estimated value of
$254,000, he would
have made an
inflation-adjusted
profit of about
$77,000 which he
could then pass on
to his children
and/or
grandchildren. In
1968, Congress
passed the Fair
Housing Act (FHA)
which enshrined
equal housing
opportunity at the
federal level and
provided federal
enforcement
mechanisms to combat
housing
discrimination which
were much more of a
deterrent than most
state
anti-discrimination
laws. While the work
that David Duncan
III, John Albano and
Elizabeth Grandison
combined with the
passage of federal
legislation,
certainly has
improved the housing
discrimination
situation,
inequities and
discrimination are
still very much a
problem all over
this country and
even in our region.
That is why, if you
are living in
Massachusetts and
feel you have been a
victim of
discrimination, you
can contact MCAD
either by phone at
(413) 739-2145 or by
email at mcad@ma.gov
and if you are
living anywhere in
the USA and you feel
you have been the
victim of housing
discrimination,
please contact the
Department of
Housing and Urban
Development either
by phone at (800)
CALL-FHA
(800-225-5342) or by
email at
answers@hud.gov
Special thanks to
the Hampden County
Clerk of Courts
staff for their
assistance with this
research.
Sources
-
America, United States
of. “CPI
Inflation Calculator.”
U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics. U.S. Bureau
of Labor Statistics,
2021. An Exceptional
Opportunity, Robert J.
Flynn Agency.
-
An
Exceptional Opportunity
Springfield Union, March
13, 1966.
-
Assessors, Springfield.
24 Pine Hill Road.
Photograph. Springfield
Assessors Database.
Springfield, MA:
Springfield Assessors,
April 29, 2016. Duncan,
Tracy.
-
Mr
David Anderson Duncan
III, 80 The
Republican. July 28,
2005.
-
Flynn, William.
Robert J. Flynn,
Realtor, Dies
Springfield Union News,
July 25, 1969. Hampden
County, Massachusetts
Deed Book 3105: 128
-
Springfield, and Malcolm
Webber,
ANNUAL REPORT of the
Massachusetts Commission
Against Discrimination
January 1, 1965 to
December 31, 1965 §
(1966).
-
Springfield Union, The
(Massachusetts) 25
February 1965,
Flynn Is Cleared,
GenealogyBank.com
-
Springfield Union, The
(Massachusetts) 3 March
1966,
Realtor is Told to
Comply with MCAD Order,
GenealogyBank.com
-
Springfield Union, The
(Massachusetts) 18
November 1966,
Virginia Meyers Marries
Lt. Wilfred Grandison,
GenealogyBank.com
-
Sunday Republican, The
(Massachusetts) 11
November 1979,
John Albano Hailed as a
Friend in Need,
GenealogyBank.com
-
Zillow, Inc. 24 Pine
Hill Rd, Springfield, MA
01118.” Zillow, 2007.