Fiscal Note
No City appropriation required.
Title
Repudiating Racial and Discriminatory Covenants in Madison Property Records.
Body
WHEREAS, the City of Madison values and promotes diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in our community, and has made a commitment to identify, address, and repair discrimination based on race and ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex and gender, disability, sexual orientation, and gender identity within the community; and
WHEREAS, racial covenants, also known as discriminatory covenants, were restrictions inserted into property deeds that prohibited purchase, rental, or occupancy of a residence based on race and other protected classes. They were used nationwide for most of the 20th century as an insidious tool to prevent non-whites, non-Christians, and other minorities at the time from buying or occupying land in America’s growing suburbs and residential neighborhoods; and
WHEREAS, although these covenants are illegal and they are no longer valid or enforceable, they can still be found in the land deeds of almost every American community, including in Madison; and
WHEREAS, the legacy of these covenants remains in our communities in the form of entrenched segregation and lower rates of homeownership and generational wealth for people of color; and
WHEREAS, the Dane County Prejudice in Places project has identified and confirmed discriminatory restrictive language in Dane County real estate records, including those in Madison, and the land records are now mapped; and
WHEREAS, these old land records with racially restrictive covenants for various subdivisions and communities contain language such as the following, which reads, “Only members of the Caucasian race shall use or occupy any dwelling on said plat, excepting that this covenant shall not prevent occupancy by domestic servants of a different race employed by an owner or tenants” (1937) and “The premises shall not be sold or conveyed to any Jew, Italian,...
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