On November 5, 1917, the US Supreme Court ruled in Buchanan v. Warley that a Louisville, Kentucky, ordinance barring Black people from occupying homes on majority-white blocks was unconstitutional. The decision came 109 years ago and became a landmark in the history of housing and property rights in the United States.

The case arose from a real estate sale: white property owner Charles Buchanan agreed to sell a lot to William Warley, a Black buyer.

Louisville’s ordinance prevented Warley from living there because most homes on the block were occupied by white residents. The Court found that the restriction interfered with the owner’s right to sell his property and violated the Fourteenth Amendment.

The ruling invalidated government-imposed racial zoning, but it did not bring housing segregation to an end. The Library of Congress notes that, after the decision, property owners used private racial covenants to restrict who could buy or rent homes. Buchanan v. Warley remains a consequential date in the history of housing discrimination and civil rights.

On November 6, 1917, the Bolsheviks launched an armed uprising against Russia’s Provisional Government in the capital, Petrograd. The revolt changed the country’s political course and helped reshape its system of land and property ownership. According to the Gregorian calendar, the uprising lasted from November 6 to 8; under the Julian calendar then in use in Russia, it became known as the October Revolution.

Russia was grappling with the First World War, food shortages and economic hardship.

After the February Revolution ended tsarist rule, the Provisional Government took power but failed to resolve major issues, including the war and peasants’ demands for land. In rural areas, peasants had already begun occupying large estates. Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin promised to transfer land to the peasants, helping his party win support in the countryside.

On the night of November 6, revolutionary forces aligned with the Bolsheviks seized bridges, railway stations, telegraph facilities and other key locations in Petrograd. Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky failed to organise an effective defence. By the following day, the Bolsheviks had taken control of government centres and declared that they had assumed power. Months of political uncertainty gave way to a new period of upheaval and prolonged conflict.

A decision on land followed soon after the revolution. On November 8, the Congress of Soviets adopted the Decree on Land, declaring that the estates of large landowners would be confiscated without compensation. Land belonging to the royal family, churches and monasteries was also placed under the control of local land committees and peasant soviets. The decree exempted the small holdings of ordinary peasants and Cossacks from confiscation.

The measure ranks among the most significant land reforms in modern history. It set Russia on a path towards replacing private ownership of land with public control and state administration. However, the decree did not immediately grant every peasant legal ownership of a plot. Local committees played a central role in managing land use, while a final settlement was left to the Constituent Assembly.

The events of November 6 are tied to the history of real estate and property because the uprising launched a political revolution that fundamentally changed the rules governing land ownership, possession and use. Its impact extended beyond rural Russia, shaping debates about land and property around the world.