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CITY OF LITTLE CANADA
<br />COUNTY OF RAMSEY
<br />STATE OF MINNESOTA
<br />
<br />RESOLUTION
<br />
<br />A RESOLUTION CONDEMNING THE USE OF DISCRIMINATORY COVENANTS, AND
<br />APPROVING PARTICIPATION IN THE JUST DEEDS COALITION
<br />WHEREAS, discriminatory covenants were tools used by real estate developers to prevent
<br />BIPOC and non-Christian individuals from buying or occupying property in certain areas, and they
<br />were common throughout the United States from the early 1900s to the 1960s; and
<br />
<br />WHEREAS, the purpose of discriminatory covenants was to racially and religiously
<br />homogenize communities by excluding BIPOC and non-Christian individuals. These tools segregated
<br />the metro area and built a hidden system of apartheid; and
<br />
<br />WHEREAS, in 2016, the University of Minnesota founded Mapping Prejudice to expose the
<br />racist practices that shaped the landscape of the metro area. Mapping Prejudice researched
<br />restrictive covenants in Ramsey County and Hennepin County and created the first-ever
<br />comprehensive map of racial covenants in an American city; and
<br />
<br />WHEREAS, an example of a common covenant declared in parts of the metro that “No part of
<br />said premises shall ever be used or occupied by or sold, conveyed, leased, rented or given to Negroes,
<br />or Mongolians or Hebrews or any person or persons of the negro race, or Mongolian race or Hebrew
<br />race or blood; and
<br />
<br />WHEREAS, restrictive covenants are no longer enforceable. Legal efforts to eliminate
<br />Discriminatory Covenants include Shelley v. Kraemer, 334 U.S. 1 (1948), in which the United States
<br />Supreme Court prohibited courts from enforcing Discriminatory Covenants and the Minnesota
<br />legislature in 1953 enacted statutes that prohibited new covenants, but existing covenants were still
<br />legal in Minnesota until 1962; and
<br />
<br />WHEREAS, as a result of these judicial and legislative actions, today, Minnesota law and
<br />federal law prohibit discrimination in the sale or lease of housing based on race, color, creed, religion,
<br />national origin, sex, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, disability, sexual
<br />orientation, or familial status and those state and federal prohibitions extend to the refusal to sell or
<br />to circulate, post or cause to be printed, circulated, or posted, any limitation, specification, or
<br />discrimination as to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, status with regard
<br />to public assistance, disability, sexual orientation, or familial status; and
<br />
<br />WHEREAS, in 2019, the Minnesota Legislature passed a law authorizing property owners to
<br />individually discharge or renounce discriminatory covenants by recording a discharge form in the
<br />county property records; and
<br />
<br />WHEREAS, discriminatory covenants promoted and established residential racial segregation,
<br />which historically and currently has impacted property ownership, accumulation of wealth, property
<br />transfers, mortgage eligibility, rental eligibility, property values, property tax base, internet access,
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