The city of Minneapolis is taking steps to eradicate a practice made illegal decades ago, but effects of which are still felt in neighborhoods across the city.
Minneapolis residents can now expunge racial covenants placed on their homes for free, thanks to the new Just Deeds Program. In a city with some of the largest disparities in homeownership by race, experts say more can and should be done to close the homeownership gap that racial covenants caused.
“I think [these practices] began our journey of seeing our white prosperity flow and flourish, and Black prosperity and then the prosperity of other races not flourish,” said Tawanna Black, founder and CEO of the Minneapolis-based Center for Economic Inclusion.