April is National Fair Housing Month and 2025 marks the 57th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act. Signed into law on April 11, 1968, by President Lyndon B. Johnson,  it was designed to protect Americans from discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on color, race, national origin, and religion. The act was later extended to sex, disability, and family status.

In honor of this we’d like to spotlight a new housing project, Equality Commons, that is under construction at 25 Casco Street. It’s right next to the Equality Community Center (ECC) a collaborative workplace which opened in 2022 at 15 Casco Street as a space for LGBTQ+ and social justice-seeking nonprofit organizations.

A site in Portland was included in The Negro Travelers’ Green Book, a well-known guidebook for African Americans travelling in the mid-twentieth century. 

enjamin Thomas worked as a Red Cap at Union Station while his wife Edie and other family members operated the Thomas House Tourist Home, a 16-room rooming house nearby at 28 A Street. Owing to the green lantern, lit rain or shine, underneath the front bay window the business was more commonly known by its nickname “The Green Lantern”. This site was featured in a great Boston Globe piece,"When travel was treacherous for Black people: The Green Book’s legacy in New England,“ last weekend, for which Greater Portland Landmarks provided research and an interview.