Every year changes are made to the Minnesota real estate forms that most Realtors use. For 2022 there is an addition to the purchase agreements:
“Discriminatory restrictive covenants (e.g. 312. provisions against conveyance of property to any person of a specified religious faith, creed, national origin, race, or 313. color) are illegal and unenforceable. An owner of real property may permanently remove such restrictive covenants 314. from the title by recording a statutory form in the office of the county recorder of any county where the property is located”
In 2020 I was a volunteer for the deed mapping project. I read Ramey County deeds and flagged those that have race-based restrictive covenants.
In some neighborhoods, developers put restrictions on deeds so that homes could only be sold to white people. Here is an example:
“ E. No persons of any race other than the Aryan race shall use or occupy any building or any lot, except that this covenant shall not prevent occupancy by domestic servants of a different race domiciled with an owner or tenant.”
The restrictions were put in place during the first part of the 20th century and might be part of the reason why our neighborhoods are still segregated.
The deed restrictions or restrictive covenants can not be enforced but they still exist on some deeds and can now be legally removed. I like to point out that even though there isn’t a racially based deed restriction on the deed to my house I am relatively sure that the land that it sits on was stolen from the native people most likely Anishinabe.
Even though I did not personally take the land and it happened before I was born I have benefited from owning it.
Realtors played a role in helping to enforce discriminatory restrictive covenants as did the local and federal governments and banks. The National Association of Realtors did issue a formal apology a few years ago.
