In one instance in the early 1970s, Polsky recalled, a black clergyman wanted to sell.

Every home on his block had been purchased by blacks, Polsky said. She and Melvin asked him to let them hold the house for a white buyer.

"He got annoyed and said, 'You're asking me to discriminate against my own people.' I said, 'What we don't want is separation. We're asking you to help integrate the community,' " Polsky said.

He agreed. "And so we broke that trend, and then black people came and white people came. Then it became an integrated block. That was our purpose, to integrate every bloc