Dr. Raven Baxter was the subject of a BOSSIP post back in 2024 when we reported on the blatant housing discrimination she faced from a white homeowner in Virginia Beach named Jane Walker. Dr. Baxter was in escrow to purchase Walker’s home when RW Towne Realty notified her that the owner was reneging on the sale. Here’s what Dr. Baxter told the New York Times:
Why? “You could hear the fear and disbelief in his voice,” Dr. Baxter said, recalling what her broker told her next. “He said, ‘I don’t know how to tell you this, but she doesn’t want to sell the home to you, and it’s because you’re Black.’”
According to new reporting by 13NewsNow, Dr. Baxter has settled her dispute with both Walker and RW Towne without ever having to go into the courtroom and involve a judge. Company spokesperson Jessica Glatzer Mason confirmed the settlement saying, “We are pleased to have reached this settlement with Dr. Baxter. There is no question that she experienced undeserved discrimination from the seller.”
Because Dr. Baxter has a large social media following, her tweet about the racism she experienced went far and wide and collected almost 11 million impressions. This created such a PR disaster for RW Towne Realty that they were also forced to acknowledge this incident with a public message on their website stating, “…all homebuyers and sellers are treated with respect and dignity throughout the homebuying process”.
National Fair Housing Alliance CEO Lisa Rice announced that Dr. Baxter will star in a federally-funded 2025 campaign to fight housing discrimination and provide the public with resources to protect themselves against bigots who practice illegal, immoral, and unethical racism regarding housing.
“I said, ‘Look, nobody should be asking this question in a moment like this. People should know where to go in a moment like this,’” Rice said. “It’s too bad people don’t know about our nation’s fair housing laws, how they can go to a local center, can go file a complaint with HUD. We approached HUD and said, ‘We want to undertake this campaign, to educate this campaign about what resources there are.’ That’s what sparked the idea around this campaign that would center around Dr. Baxter.”
There was no report on whether or not finances were a part of the settlement but we hope she got paid a nice piece of change for having to suffer white shenanigans.