11 Dupont Circle, N.W.
Suite 450
Washington, D.C. 20036

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About Us

This year marks the Equal Rights Center's 25th Year Anniversary. For a quarter of a century the ERC has been dedicated to advancing civil rights. Please join the ERC in protecting civil rights for the future.

Background

Founded by community leaders and interdenominational clergy, the Equal Rights Center (ERC) began in 1983 as the Fair Housing Council of Greater Washington. In 1999, when the Fair Housing Council of Greater Washington merged with the Fair Employment Council of Greater Washington, the organization name became the Equal Rights Center. In 2005 the Disability Rights Council also merged into the ERC. With each of these mergers, the mission of the ERC expanded, and continues to grow today.

Today, few organizations in the United States engage in civil rights education and outreach, research, testing, counseling, enforcement and advocacy for all legally protected groups in relation to all aspects of fair housing, fair employment, equal access to public accommodations and government services, disability rights and immigrant rights.

Areas of Work

The Equal Rights Center aggressively combats discriminatory practices in the greater Washington D.C. area, in the mid-Atlantic region and across the United States.  The ERC collaborates with national civil rights organizations, local agencies, advocacy groups, universities, service providers and the religious community.  It is through the ERC's long-standing representation by the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs that the ERC maintains its potent enforcement capability. 

Fair Housing: The ERC targets discrimination in housing rentals and sales, home warranty coverage, homeowners insurance, predatory lending, redlining and reverse redlining, and accessible housing for persons with disabilities. Recognized by the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development as a “Full Service Qualified Fair Housing Organization,” the ERC has 25 years experience in complaint-based and systemic testing for fair housing violations and the enforcement of meritorious claims. The ERC has developed a national reputation for excellence in its fair housing investigations and testing initiatives that have led to widely publicized and landmark civil rights cases.

Fair Employment: The ERC surveys employment practices utilizing traditional and novel testing techniques, works to redress workplace discrimination, and provides targeted anti-discrimination training programs and educational products. Utilizing testing, an ERC predecessor agency, the Fair Employment Council of Greater Washington, set important standards for the use of employment discrimination testing, and was responsible for the country’s first judicial precedents upholding the ability of private organizations and testers to raise equal employment opportunity claims on the basis of tester-generated evidence.

Disability Rights:  The ERC’s vigorous efforts to provide fair treatment to the more than 50 million people in the United States with disabilities involve increasing access to housing, jobs, and all manner of public accommodations and government services. Hospitals, public transportation, stores, restaurants, banks and government offices continue to amass a very uneven record of compliance with the law.  Finding accessible housing continues to be the number one crisis confronting people with disabilities. The ERC is doing more to eliminate this crisis than any other agency, public or private, in the nation.

Access to Public Accommodations: The ERC targets discriminatory treatment directed against members of protected groups when seeking goods and services in stores, restaurants, entertainment venues, lodging establishments, when seeking help from government entities, or when using public or private transportation.

Access to Government Services: The ERC challenges discrimination faced by members of protected groups who are trying to obtain access to government benefits, activities, services and programs.  These challenges may include physical barriers, language access barriers and lack of interpreter services.

Immigrant Rights:  The Equal Rights Center has found in recent years that the legal, civil and human rights of too many immigrants are being violated not only by the uninformed, but by individuals who consciously choose instead to surrender to their prejudices. Uncovering and fighting cases of mistreatment of people because of their national original, in housing, employment, public accommodations, government services and even in education, the ERC has become the voice and advocate of scores of victims.