A Minneapolis Homeowner Confronts the Ghost of Housing Segregation By Jessica Prody Photo by Uche Iroegbu
“No person or persons other than of the Caucasian race shall be permitted to occupy said premises or any part thereof.”
Imagine discovering this language in the property description of your dream home, only to realize that, in the earliest chapters of the home’s history, you would have been legally barred from owning it. This is the situation that Minneapolis homeowner Katie Bradbury, a Korean adoptee, found herself in when she viewed her property on a racial covenant map created by the University of Minnesota’s Mapping Prejudice project. After discovering the Twin Cities PBS project, Jim Crow of the North Stories – which uplifts the efforts of activists, municipalities, and everyday Minnesotans to reckon with the legacy of housing segregation in the Twin Cities, Bradbury decided to investigate the property deed of her own home.
“It just it felt gross,” Bradbury said, describing what she discovered on the map. “I came home and went to David [her husband], and said, ‘So, we have a racist house. Did you know that?’”
Prior to the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968, Bradbury realized that the home she loves would have been off limits during a long period of housing segregation. Upon discovering the covenant, Bradbury investigated what it would take to remove it from the property and submitted her information to Minneapolis’s Just Deeds project, an organization that helps property owners discharge their covenants.
Now that her discharge application has been sent to the City of Minneapolis, Bradbury is planning to educate others in her neighborhood about covenants and the process of discharging them from deeds.
“I think it’s a learning experience for people to realize here are the historical acts our community took to keep a segregated city, and then look at the current impacts of that and ask, ‘What can we do to make it better?”
We will be following Bradbury’s story as the process of discharging her deed continues. Follow along on TPT’s Storyboard blog: tpt.org/storyboard .
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