Realtors® are asking, so we explored the process.
Up until the late 1940s, it was legal in the US to exclude individuals from living in certain neighborhoods specifically on the basis of race. One of the most overt tools to achieve this exclusion was the use of restrictive racial covenants in land title deeds. These covenants prohibited ownership and even rental of the covenanted property by anyone of the race(s) being excluded, generally leading to cities and towns becoming segregated by race as they grew. While such covenants have not been legally enforceable since 1948, they still exist in millions of property deeds across the country and are a stark reminder of how society used to function.
Land Title Deeds are a record of ownership transfers for a specific piece of property from the very inception of our nation. In fact, many deeds pre-date the establishment of a given property’s statehood. A racial covenant, despite being unenforceable, cannot be removed from a property deed. But in Minnesota, it can be discharged and disavowed by the current owner.
As the Center has worked with Realtors® over the last several years on issues from homeownership education and advising to navigating down payment assistance programs, we’ve heard from many wondering how to easily help clients find and discharge racial covenants as part of the home buying transaction. The good news is there’s an organization working to do just that. Twenty-nine cities across Minnesota, including Minneapolis, St Paul, Bloomington, Rochester and Mankato, have partnered with Just Deeds to streamline and expedite the process. See all of the cities partnering to accomplish this work here. Just Deeds also works directly with the public on racial covenant issues outside of the partner cities.
To learn more about the history of restrictive racial covenants here in Minnesota, you can watch the TPT – Mapping Prejudice documentary Jim Crow of the North, produced in 2019.