The modest brick house, with its yard full of wilting tulips and rusted old cars, isn't a candidate for the pages of Better Homes and Gardens. But on a spring day in 2002, it was just what Nealie Pitts had in mind. She approached the owner, Rufus T. Matthews, and asked the price. According to court documents, Matthews said the house was selling for $83,000 - but that a deed restriction meant only whites were eligible to buy it. "I was hurt and angry, like he had slapped me in the face," Pitts, who is black, said in an e-mail....