Golden Valley city staff project turns into growing effort to denounce racial covenants Reminder of bans on people of color still in documents throughout Twin Cities. March 13, 2021 6:15pm Text size Copy shortlink:
A push by some Golden Valley city staff members to strike racist language from property deeds is spreading across the Twin Cities metro as residents reckon with the history of banning people of color from buying homes in white neighborhoods.
The Just Deeds Project pairs homeowners with pro bono attorneys to discharge racial covenants, the language embedded in deeds beginning in 1910 that segregated neighborhoods throughout the Twin Cities metro. Though unenforceable after a landmark 1948 Supreme Court ruling, the language of racial covenants remains in thousands of deeds.