Racial restrictions still exist in Wisconsin property deeds. Wauwatosa is pushing the state to remove them.
In some Wauwatosa property deeds, homeowners can still find restrictions that ban anyone who is not white from living there. The city's equity and inclusion commission is asking for statewide legislation to remove this racist language that, experts say, has had far-reaching detrimental effects.
The first racial restriction, or covenant, in Wauwatosa, placed on the Washington Highlands Subdivision in 1919, stated:
"At no time shall the land included in Washington Highlands or any part thereof, or any building thereon be purchased, owned, leased or occupied by any person other than of white race. This prohibition is not intended to include domestic servants while employed by the owner or occupied by and (sic) land included in the tract."
This isn't unique to Wauwatosa. By the 1940s, at least 16 of the 18 Milwaukee County suburbs used such covenants to exclude Black families from residential areas, according to records from the Metropolitan Integration Research Center.
More:How we measure segregation and what the numbers actually tell us
Although racial covenants became legally unenforceable in 1948, they weren't specifically made illegal until the Fair Housing Act in 1968. While many have expired, or have been directly removed, there's no law that says racial restrictions can't be in Wisconsin property deeds.
For years, the commission, formed in 2019, has discussed how to remove racist language from property deeds. This month, they've passed a resolution that asks for state laws that would remove, or make it easier for property owners to remove, racial covenants.
"Originally we had suggested just a volunteer effort in Wauwatosa to help people do this themselves, but it appears that a much more effective tool might be statewide legislation that would remove, or allow for the removal, of such covenants by law, since the issue of property title and deeds is an issue of state law," said City Attorney Alan Kesner.
Similar legislation has passed in Minnesota, California and Oregon.
"They all do it in slightly different ways, so there is a lot of flexibility if the legislature wanted to create such a state law in Wisconsin," Kesner said.
The resolution must pass the city's Common Council before it is sent to state legislators.
Racially restrictive covenants leave lasting effects, experts say
The commission's resolution cites the Mapping Racism and Resistance project, directed by University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee professors Anne Bonds and Derek Handley, which aims to document and map restrictive covenants in Milwaukee County.
"The covenants themselves are illegal, but their impacts are with us," said Bonds, a professor of geography and urban studies.
Impacts include generational and racial wealth gaps, current homes' property values and varying access to "well-established education systems," she said.
Covenants also help establish a culture and "ways of thinking about who belongs and who does not belong," said Handley, an English professor.
"You can talk to some Black Milwaukee residents, and they can tell you how they may not feel welcome in certain communities," Handley said.
While racial covenants have been unenforceable since 1948, they were still abided by for decades until the Fair Housing Act. The residual effects caused by covenants help to establish a culture where segregation is normalized, Handley said.
"Sometimes, I ask my students, 'Do you ever stop and ask why there are Black neighborhoods?'" Handley said. "'What words do we use to describe ... or what do we conceptualize, when we ask whether a neighborhood is good or bad, whether a school is good or bad?'"
Conversations like the ones brought forth by Wauwatosa's equity and inclusion commission are a step in the right direction, Handley said.
"We've seen instances across the nation of where properties are not appraised at the same rate because the person who's selling a house is a person of color," Handley said. "So, some of these conversations are taking place and perhaps more of them need to take place."
While Bonds called the resolution "exciting," both researchers could agree that residents should receive education on covenants, whether they are removed from deeds or not.
"I think it's very powerful for people to see the language in the documents ... where people of color, Black people are being discussed in ways ... with refuse and junk on properties, or the permitting of land uses like animals and livestock on properties," Bonds said.
Bonds and Handley hope to hold educational workshops in Wauwatosa and across Milwaukee County in coming months, also giving residents an opportunity to participate in their ongoing project.
More:The home of the first black man to build in Wauwatosa is being considered for historic designation
Quinn Clark can be emailed at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @Quinn_A_Clark.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wauwatosa proposes ban on racial covenants in Wisconsin property deeds
