John J. Buckley was a white homeowner in Washington, D.C., who sued fellow resident Irene Hand Corrigan, because Corrigan sought to sell her property to an African American woman named Helen Curtis and her husband, Dr. Arthur Curtis. In 1921, thirty white persons, including Buckley and Corrigan, had executed a covenant that said that for twenty-one years their houses could not be sold to “any person of the negro race or blood.” The next year, Corrigan sought to sell her property to Curtis and Buckley sued to enforce the covenant.