Restrictive covenants were legally enforceable clauses in property deeds, prohibiting the owners of the property from selling or renting to people of certain races or ethnicities.
These covenants were widespread throughout the United States, and served to enforce residential segregation even in cities outside of the Jim Crow South. They served to "protect" the property values of white homeowners, and were instrumental in limiting the housing options for people of color, and African Americans in particular. This drove up rental prices for minority and working-class communities, and helped shape other exploitative housing practices such as contract buying. Despite the fact that the Supreme Court ruled in the 1948 case of Shelley v. Kraemer that the government could no longer legally enforce such covenants, they continued to shape urban and suburban real estate for decades after the ruling. Even today, many property deeds still contain such clauses, despite the fact that they are not enforceable. |
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