Jim Crow of the North
Tammy and I watched Minnesota Experience: Jim Crow of the North tonight. It was incredibly eye opening to one form of systemic racism that I have been surrounded by for over two decades and was not aware of.
Racist real estate covenants were pervasive in Minneapolis and the surrounding suburbs. In fact, the last house that we lived in on Morgan Avenue includes one.
no person or persons other than of the white race shall be permitted to occupy said premises or any part thereof
You can see the relatively small enclave of these racist covenants right off of Minnehaha Creek. Then a huge grid of them further south.
I was curious about our current home on the East side of Pamela Park in Edina. Somewhat surprisingly, none of the properties on the East have covenants, but the Western side of Pamela Park is littered with them.
If you are curious you can spend some time exploring yourself at Mapping Prejudice. Kevin Ehrman-Solberg, one of the co-founders of the project, also did a TEDx Minneapolis talk on these racist covenants.
I’m left with the data that 75% of White families in Minneapolis own their own homes, and only 25% of Black families own their home. The generations of wealth built and restricted from so many families has massive impact still today.