Lee Davenport, Ph.D
By: Lee Davenport, Ph.D
It is no secret that this housing market requires tenacity.
Depending on how long you have been in real estate, there are a few things—the post-pandemic, inflation (creating record home appreciation for many homeowners (yay!) while simultaneously pushing the average age of a homebuyer to record highs (yikes!)), natural disasters that have gutted some longstanding and influential neighborhoods (like Altadena), the general housing shortage—that may have you questioning your career options.
For those of us who have been in this industry for the better part of this century and millennium, we recognize that the only constant is often change. As a result, we “geriatric” millennials have learned that although there may be a new fancy, AI-powered app, our soft skills, such as tenacity, have been the “golden thread” of our success with each passing year.
In honor of Women’s History Month as well as next month being Fair Housing Month, let’s review just three (of many) young women (YPN age – under 40 – at the time of their start) who helped shape modern fair housing—not because they were the most resourced with the latest gadgets and gizmos but—because of a quintessential ingredient that isn’t dependent upon how techie you are or what area of the country you call home —tenacity.
Margaret Collins
Margaret Collins (1917 – 2006) didn’t just sell houses—she sold tenacity. In her 30s (the 1950s), fueled by frustration over housing discrimination in Philadelphia’s suburbs, housing pioneer Collins rallied interfaith leaders and real estate experts to launch Friends Suburban Housing — a revolutionary agency that ignored skin color when selling homes. This “open door” housing model sparked fierce resistance, with Collins later recalling how she conducted moonlight showings for Black families to dodge violent protests from white residents.
When barred from accessing multiple listing services by the Main Line Board of Realtors, she fought back through the courts, ultimately winning a landmark Pennsylvania Supreme Court antitrust case that cracked open suburban markets.
For over two decades, Collins’ “housing freedom fighters” program helped at least 232 Black families buy homes that had previously been legally off limits.
Collins was instrumental in Pennsylvania’s first “mystery shopper” undercover housing tests that became the linchpin of national fair housing enforcement models (a practice still used today to identify unfair housing). Her tenacity to help all families laid the groundwork for the 1961 Pennsylvania Fair Housing legislation and the 1968 Fair Housing Act. When laws caught up to her vision, she swapped sales signs for sledgehammers—spending her final decades rehabbing homes in neglected areas into affordable homes.
Vel Phillips
Velvalea Hortense Rodgers “Vel” Phillips (1923/1924 – 2018), a graduate of Howard University, shattered barriers as the first Black woman to graduate from the University of Wisconsin Law School and the first woman and African American elected to Milwaukee’s Common Council in 1956 when she was around the age of 32.
Notably, around age 38, Phillips introduced the Phillips Housing Ordinance in 1962, which sought to outlaw housing discrimination in Milwaukee. Despite being rejected multiple times (four times over six years!)—often with only her lonely vote in favor—Phillips persisted. Her advocacy culminated in the historic fair housing marches of 1967, which drew national attention to Milwaukee’s segregation.
Phillips continued breaking barriers as Wisconsin’s first Black judge and later its first Black secretary of state, proving that persistence can change your corner of the earth.
Lee Porter
Born in Brooklyn (likely around 1927/8), Lee Porter’s tenacity turned the metaphorical lemons of unfair housing into lemonade founding a national fair housing movement and earning her the title “Mother of Fair Housing.”
Around the age of 37 (in 1965), she and her husband were denied housing in Bergen County, New Jersey, due to legal discriminatory practices that steered Black families into under-resourced neighborhoods, often neglected by and excluded from the governmental services for which they paid. Tenaciously fueled by determination, Porter joined the Fair Housing Council of Bergen County as a volunteer, exposing discrimination by posing as one of its first “mystery shopper” undercover testers (a program that caught fire nationally from Margaret Collins). By 1971, Porter became the council’s executive director, a position she still holds today at age 97 (if that’s not tenacious, I don’t know what is!), transforming it from an underfunded volunteer group into one of the nation’s most effective fair housing agencies.
If that were not enough, Porter played a pivotal role in securing federal funding for fair housing initiatives and co-founded the nonprofit organization, the National Fair Housing Alliance (today’s most comprehensive, reader-friendly, and easily accessible source of fair housing trends and data).
Plus, Porter’s inspiring leadership helped establish landmark programs like the Fair Housing Initiatives Program, which now provides millions in funding to combat housing discrimination nationwide.
Described as “feisty” and tireless, Porter’s tenacity has reshaped lives and communities, helping to ensure everyone has the right to live where they choose.
Coach’s Corner: Over to You
Author Alice Walker reminds us that the power of tenacity begins with our thoughts. She once said:
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”
Depending on the day, the news cycle may discourage your outlook on the market but do not let it make you cave. In the footsteps of the many real estate leaders before us, please consider doing a Q1 check-in with these coaching questions:
- What’s a challenge that you are currently facing in this real estate market?
- In what ways can tenacity help you to turn your lemons into lemonade?
- Like Lee Porter, what financial alliances do you need to seek out or create?
- Like Margaret Collins, for what program(s) do you need to dream up and pilot a test run? Or, what programs can you learn more about that already exist?
- Like Vel Phillips, what idea do you have that you need to recommit to, even if you are the only one right now who sees the vision?
You’ve got this!
Dr. Lee Davenport is a real estate coach/educator and author (including Be a Fair Housing D.E.C.O.D.E.R. and How to Profit with Your Personality). Dr. Lee trains real estate agents around the globe on how to work smarter with their unique personalities and how to “advocate, not alienate,” so everyone has access and opportunity in real estate.