Leaders across Oregon have taken great pains in recent years to acknowledge the state’s racist past and dismantle tools of institutional racism in real estate. But the history lingers — maybe even in the documents of your home.
Racially restrictive covenants came to prominence in the 1920s. As neighborhoods were created in cities across the country, housing developers wanted to keep their communities exclusive by keeping out certain ethnic and religious groups.
So they drafted covenants such as one real estate agent Jennifer Lundstrom recently found on a home in Milwaukie: “No Negros, Chinese, or Japanese shall own or occupy property in this neighborhood unless they are a worker or a servant.” Check out the full story
By Erica Morrison, OPB
