Title
Condemning the use of discriminatory covenants, discharging discriminatory covenants on city-owned property, and approving participation in the Just Deeds coalition.
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WHEREAS, discriminatory covenants were tools used by real estate developers to prevent BIPOC and non-Christian individuals from buying or occupying property in certain areas, and they were common throughout the United States from the early 1900s to the 1960s; and
WHEREAS, the purpose of discriminatory covenants was to racially and religiously homogenize communities by excluding BIPOC and non-Christian individuals from Saint Paul, and these tools segregated the metro area and built a hidden system of apartheid; and
WHEREAS, in 2016, the University of Minnesota founded Mapping Prejudice to expose the discriminatory practices that shaped the landscape of the metro area; and
WHEREAS, restrictive covenants are no longer enforceable. Legal efforts to eliminate Discriminatory Covenants include Shelley v. Kraemer, 334 U.S. 1 (1948), in which the United States Supreme Court prohibited courts from enforcing Discriminatory Covenants and the Minnesota legislature in 1953 enacted statutes that prohibited new covenants, but existing covenants were still legal in Minnesota until 1962; and
WHEREAS, as a result of these judicial and legislative actions, today, Minnesota law and federal law prohibit discrimination in the sale or lease of housing based on race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, disability, sexual orientation, or familial status; and those state and federal prohibitions extend to the refusal to sell or to circulate, post or cause to be printed, circulated, or posted, any limitation, specification, or discrimination as to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, disability, sexual orientation, or familial status; and
WHEREAS, in 2019, the Minnesota Legisl...
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