The St. Paul City Attorney’s Office is pleased to join the Just Deeds Project Coalition. The initiative gives homeowners the chance to learn about and discharge the racial covenants recorded on their properties.
Racial covenants were documents recorded against a property’s legal title which banned property owners from selling, renting, or allowing their home to be used by people of certain races. Racial covenants were recorded on homes in the metro area and across the state by developers and homeowners starting in the 1910s. The use of racial covenants created forced segregation for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (“BIPOC”) members of our community, and alternatively created white – only neighborhoods and developments. Within these racially segregated areas, BIPOC residents could not get mortgages, buy property, or build wealth. The Fair Housing Act of 1968 outlawed racial covenants nationwide and rendered existing covenants unenforceable. Yet, BIPOC members of our community still experience the harm caused by these covenants. From 2016 to 2020, the Mapping Prejudice team at the University of Minnesota used technology and volunteers to review thousands of documents to identify racial covenants. In 2019, a law was passed that allows homeowners to discharge racial covenants on their properties.
The St. Paul City Attorney’s Office will continue this important work through its Just Deeds Project. Law student volunteers will assist with the Project by reviewing title paperwork and drafting documents to discharge racial covenants. Volunteers, if interested, are also able to lead a virtual meeting with the applicant, at which you will review the educational materials and the covenant discharge document.
This opportunity is available to Mitchell Hamline students who have completed their first year of law school and can volunteer 5 hours per week during the course of the semester. Contact your MJF staff attorney Anna Berglund, at mitchellhamline@mnjustice.org for information about how to get involved.