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CITY OF ST. ANTHONY VILLAGE
<br />STATE OF MINNESOTA
<br />RESOLUTION 21-068
<br />RESOLUTION TO CONDEMNING THE USE OF DISCRIMINATORY COVENANTS
<br />AND 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
<br />areas, and they were common throughout the United States from the early 1900s to
<br />the 1960s; and
<br />WHEREAS, the purpose of discriminatory covenants was to racially and religiously homogenize
<br />communities by excluding BIPOC and non-Christian individuals from communities.
<br />These tools segregated the metro area and built a hidden system of apartheid; and
<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
<br />researched restrictive covenants in Hennepin County and created the first -ever
<br />comprehensive map of racial covenants in an American city.
<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
<br />the United States Supreme Court prohibited courts from enforcing Discriminatory
<br />Covenants and the Minnesota legislature in 1953 enacted statutes that prohibited
<br />new covenants, but existing covenants were still legal in Minnesota until 1962; and
<br />WHEREAS, as a result of these judicial and legislative actions, today, Minnesota law and federal
<br />law prohibit discrimination in the sale or lease of housing based on race, color,
<br />creed, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, status with regard to public
<br />assistance, disability, sexual orientation, or familial status and those state and federal
<br />prohibitions extend to the refusal to sell or to circulate, post or cause to be printed,
<br />circulated, or posted, any limitation, specification, or discrimination as to race, color,
<br />creed, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, status with regard to public
<br />assistance, disability, sexual orientation, or familial status; and
<br />WHEREAS, in 2019, the Minnesota Legislature passed a law authorizing property owners to
<br />individually discharge or renounce discriminatory covenants by recording a
<br />discharge form in the county property records; and.
<br />WHEREAS, discriminatory covenants promoted and established residential racial segregation,
<br />which historically and currently has impacted property ownership, accumulation of
<br />wealth, property transfers, mortgage eligibility, rental eligibility, property values,
<br />property tax base, intemet access, and more. Discriminatory covenants fortified
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