Diane Newbrough, a former real estate agent in Belmont, was one of the recipients of the Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston’s Open Door Awards last month.

Almost four years ago, Diane Newbrough found herself in an uncomfortable situation when a client she was helping rent a single-family home in Belmont refused to rent to an out-of-state couple because they were black.

Newbrough refused to discriminate and be bullied by a client. Newbrough has been praised by some in the real estate industry for her actions, and last month she was one of three individuals honored by the Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston.

“We are thankful for people like Diane. We all should be. The awards are meant to be not just from the center, but from all of us who benefit from what these people do,” said David J. Harris, the center’s executive director.

“We always say that Realtors are on the front lines in the battle against discrimination,” said Harris. “They see it. They see what’s happening out there. Because it might seem like we’re always critical of Realtors, we think it’s important to acknowledge when they do something great.”

The Fair Housing Center has highlighted discriminatory practices in real estate in the past. About two years ago, the center released a study showing that blacks, families with children and rental subsidy holders experienced discrimination in more than half of their attempts to find rental housing in Greater Boston. The center is currently conducting a study on the home sales market, and preliminary results so far have shown that black and Latino homebuyers are being steered to lower-priced homes and neighborhoods and asked for mortgage pre-approval before they’re permitted to see for-sale homes more than white homebuyers who share similar characteristics.

Newbrough knows that such practices are unacceptable. Today, she is no longer in the real estate field, but she can easily recall all the details that led to that frustrating incident in Belmont.

Not thinking she did anything extraordinary, Newbrough was a little reluctant and embarrassed to be recognized by the Fair Housing Center. “I didn’t do it for the recognition,” she said. “I just did what I thought was right.”

‘People Like This’

Newbrough landed a job working in the Belmont office of what was then known as Coldwell Banker Hunneman within weeks of getting her real estate license about four years ago. She was hired to focus mostly on rental properties.

After working in the office for about six months, she was contacted one summer day by a woman living in Maryland named Mary Murnane who wanted to rent a single-family home she owned in Belmont. The landlord had been working with another broker but was unhappy because her property wasn’t rented yet.

Newbrough recalls that the property owner had some specific requests: dogs allowed but no cats, a 10-month lease if possible instead of a full year.

A short while later, Newbrough said she got a call from a couple from Atlanta who had been searching for a suitable home to rent but were having trouble find one. The husband and wife, Stephen and Karen Ruffin, had two children and were temporarily relocating to the Boston area. They were willing to sign a year’s lease although they were probably only going to need a home for 10 months. They also had a dog.

Almost immediately, Newbrough thought of Murnane’s three-bedroom home. The Ruffins, who were in town for a short stay, agreed to see the property and on their way back to Atlanta called from the airport to tell Newbrough they wanted to rent the house.

“When I called Mary, she was very pleased,” recalled Newbrough.

After that, Newbrough said Murnane called almost on a daily basis requesting a various things – a personal reference letter from the Ruffins, proof of employment, a reference letter for the dog.

“I complied with everything and kept her apprised on a daily basis,” she said.

The Ruffins’ credit was superb, according to Newbrough, and they had all the proper references. They were, in Newbrough’s words, “extremely qualified.” Everything was going smoothly, according to Newbrough, and she had even sent copies of checks for the security deposit and first and last months’ rents to the landlord.

She had also sent Murnane a letter, via Federal Express, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology offering Stephen Ruffin, an aerospace engineer with two Ph.D.s, a Martin Luther King Jr. visiting professor position. That was a Friday, remembers Newbrough, and the next day she received a phone call from a very upset Murnane who demanded to know whether the Ruffins were black.

Well aware of the Fair Housing laws, Newbrough recalls answering, “I can’t answer that.” The landlord’s response was clear, according to Newbrough. The landlord said her elderly neighbors in Belmont would not be happy with black neighbors and asked Newbrough, “Do you even know Belmont?”

Newbrough, who has lived in Belmont for nearly seven years and whose home is within walking distance to the rental property, answered that she knew the community quite well. “Then you know I can’t rent to people like this,” was the landlord’s answer.

Newbrough ended the phone conversation and immediately consulted the manager of her office, who told her to send a letter to Murnane notifying her that the office was no longer renting or representing her property. In addition, Newbrough had to call the Ruffins, who of course wanted to know why their rental offer wasn’t accepted.

All Newbrough could say at that point was “I can’t get into it.” But Newbrough offered her personal home phone number and told the Ruffins to call her if they had more questions. Newbrough said the Ruffins, who were suspicious that their race was a reason the property owner had such a sudden change of heart, asked more questions but she said she was under the impression that she couldn’t discuss those issues with them. Instead, she told the Ruffins that her office had dropped the property.

About a week later, Newbrough said she got a call from the landlord who was essentially backtracking from her earlier statements and was inquiring about why she had not received a signed lease. At that point, the landlord said she would rent to the Ruffins, and when the manager of the office called the couple informing them that the house was available, they refused, said Newbrough.

The Ruffins filed a complaint with Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination in July 2000 and the case was moved to Middlesex Superior Court. Initially, Newbrough and the real estate office were listed in the complaint but were eventually dropped after MCAD had determined they acted properly.

Murnane agreed to pay $50,000 to the Ruffins to settle the complaint and was forced to attend classes on Fair Housing laws. The settlement also barred her from selling or renting a property in Massachusetts for five years without a broker or agent.

Newbrough said during the episode she received some supportive words from her colleagues. But she acknowledged that some suggested that they would have handled the situation differently and would have avoided the lawsuit and complaint.

For Newbrough, while the events that took place were quite time-consuming, she said she knew she acted correctly. “I wasn’t frightened because I knew I didn’t do anything wrong,” she said.

Newbrough said she stopped working in real estate not because of the incident but because the work took up too much of her time, and she wanted to focus more on raising her daughter and son.

But after the incident, Newbrough conceded, her “impression of the business changed.”

“It’s hard to maintain your ethics in real estate,” she said.