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Screen Copy of Just Deeds Web Page History tab: Words matter. How discriminatory covenants were used to segregate Minnesota communities. No persons of any race other than the Caucasian race shall use or occupy any building or any lot, except that this covenant shall not prevent oc- cupancy by domestic servants of a different race domiciled with an owner or tenant. In post -Civil War Minnesota and across the country, developers, real estate agents, and local, state and federal governments prohibited Black Americans from realizing their full rights and opportunities as citizens. Governments and developers deliberately used discriminatory covenants to create segregated communities and build wealth for the white community at the expense of the Black community and other people of color. These "white -only" covenants restricted families along racial and ethnic lines from owning homes in the majority of neighborhoods in our cities. In Minneapolis, the first racially restrictive deed appeared in 1910, when Henry and Leonora Scott sold a property on 35th Avenue South to Nels Anderson. The deed contained what would become a common restriction: ..the premises shall not at any time be conveyed, mortgaged or leased to any person or persons of Chinese, Japanese, Moorish, Turkish, Negro, Mongolian or African blood or descent. Separate and unequal. When the racially restrictive deed above was written, Minneapolis was not particularly segregated. But covenants changed the landscape of the city. As racially restrictive deeds spread, Black Americans were pushed into a few small areas of the city. And as the number of Black residents continued to climb, even larger swaths of the city became entirely white.