On October 21, 1909, 125 residents of an affluent Minneapolis neighborhood approached William Simpson, who had just purchased a plot in the area, and asked him to leave.
The Simpsons would be the second black family in an otherwise white neighborhood, where they planned to make a home. When the Simpsons refused an offer to buy them, their neighbors tried to stop the construction of their house.
They Eventually Moved Into Their Own Home
but the incident had a ripple effect. A few months after the mob harassed The Simpsons, the first racially restrictive ordinance was enacted in Minneapolis.
Covenants are agreements in real estate dealings that are intended to regulate how the property is to be used. Beginning in the mid-1800s, people in the United States and elsewhere began to employ them in a new way: specifically, to racially demarcate properties.
They wrote clauses into the deeds intended to prevent all future owners from selling or leasing to certain racial and ethnic groups, especially black people.
Between 1920 and 1950, these racial compacts spread like wildfire across America, making cities more isolated and suburbs more confined.
In The County Encompassing Minneapolis
racial contracts eventually appeared in more than 25,000 homes. Not only was it legal, but the US Federal Housing Administration promoted racial covenants in its underwriting manual.
When building new homes, real estate developers began imposing racial restrictions on them from the start.
The development was planned as a dream community for American families—but only for white people. In 1947, a company began building what became widely recognized as the prototype of the postwar American suburb: Levittown, New York.
It was a community of over 17,000 identical homes. They cost about $7,000 each and were intended to be affordable for returning World War II veterans.
But, according to Levittown's racial covenants, no house "may be used or occupied by persons other than persons of the Caucasian race," with one exception: servants.
Between 1950 and 1970, the population of American suburbs nearly doubled as white people moved to more racially homogeneous areas in a phenomenon known as "white flight." Suburbs spread, replacing native ecosystems with miles of pavement and waterlogged lawns.
And Their Sprawling Layout Required Car Travel
American automobile production quadrupled between 1946 and 1955, increasing the nation's dependence on cars. Federal programs such as the G.I.
The bill offered favorable home loan rates to US veterans. But it was difficult for people of color to take advantage of such resources. Ethnic agreements restricted them to certain neighborhoods.
And, at the same time, government programs labeled neighborhoods colorfully bad investments and often refused to insure mortgages in those areas.
Therefore, banks generally do not lend to people buying property in neighborhoods of color—a practice known as redlining.
So, instead of owning homes that increase in value over time, creating wealth that can be passed down to future generations, many people of color are forced to spend their income on rent. gone.
And Even When They Were Able To Buy Property
their home values were less likely to increase. Suburbs have cul-de-sacs and dead ends that reduce traffic.
Meanwhile, city planners often identified red-lined neighborhoods as cheap areas for industrial development.
Therefore, the massive freeway projects of the mid-20th century cut disproportionately into red-lined neighborhoods with heavy industry and pollution.
As a result, many neighborhoods of color have high rates of drinking water contamination, asthma and other health problems. Racial compacts were quickly challenged in court by those targeted and, in 1968, they were finally banned under the Fair Housing Act.
But the damage was done. Racial contracts concentrated wealth and amenities in white neighborhoods and depressed conditions and home values in neighborhoods of color.
As of 2020, about 74% of white families in the US owned their homes, compared to about 44% of black families.
The Gap Is The Largest Among Minnesota's Twin Cities.
Across the country, neighborhoods remain segregated and 90% of all suburban counties are predominantly white.
Some landlords, real estate agents, and lenders still discriminate against people based on race—turning them away, moving them to and from certain neighborhoods, or offering unaffordably high interest rates.
Gentrification and exclusionary zoning practices still displace and keep people of color out of certain neighborhoods. Race contracts are now illegal.
But they can still be seen on many housing deeds. The legacy of racial compacts is etched into the pristine lawns of American suburbia.
This is a footnote in the demographic distribution of each city. And it is one of the insidious architects of the hidden inequalities that shape our world.
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