For decades, racially restrictive covenants were a common part of Milwaukee-area home deeds. These covenants prohibited the sale of properties to non-white people. They have been illegal since the Fair Housing Act of 1968, but their legacy has contributed to the high segregation we see throughout the Milwaukee area today.
UW-Milwaukee professors Derek Handley and Anne Bonds are mapping out where these covenants were, and where they remain in some property deeds. Sifting through documents with help from a team of 5,000 volunteers, they found that, between 1910 and 1960, Milwaukee properties saw around 32,500 racial covenants.
"One interesting thing to note about that: between 1920 and 1930, there were three times as many covenants as there actually were Black people in Milwaukee," says Handley.
Handley and Bonds joined Lake Effect's Joy Powers to talk about their ongoing Mapping Racism and Resistance in Milwaukee County project.
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