Dane County, Wisconsin Event Helps Deed Holders Delete Racial Covenants

In June, a two-and-a-half-hour event took place at the Alliant Energy Center Exhibition Hall in Madison. The goal? To deal with harmful, racially motivated deed restrictions. Local leaders showed up — and led. Title professionals came to help deed holders fill out and record the document called “Discharge and Release of Discriminatory Restriction Affecting Real Property.”

Dane County Executive Melissa Agard had discovered a racial restriction written into her own deed. She stepped up to host the “Prejudice in Places” event, where she became the first to complete Wisconsin’s new form to confront exclusionary deed language.

When Deeds Were Tools to Exclude

Hundreds of people in Dane County alone have deeds on record that contain race-based exclusions.

Throughout the first half of the 20^th century, discriminatory words were written, outright, on home deeds. The point? To exclude anyone considered nonwhite from acquiring deeds in the areas.

This is a big reason why, to this day, so many neighborhoods lack diversity. It’s also a big reason why people who weren’t perceived as white often could not live in places with desirable schools and valuable real estate to sell or pass down through the generations. The opportunity costs to nonwhite families were immense and lasting.

These “racial covenants” can’t be enforced today. They violate the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court said so in Shelley v. Kraemer (1948). Although some of these deed restrictions were recorded anyway after the Supreme Court’s decision, the Fair Housing Act of 1968 put a stop to them for good.

And yet, even though these covenants have been outlawed, the harmful language remains. This is because deed covenants run with the land.

So the County is offering time and support for what it calls the “meaningful, restorative act” of formally renouncing the prejudice written into deeds.

Prejudice in Places: Event Planning

This important deed event was put together by the county Office of Equity & Inclusion and the Dane County Planning & Development Department. Also facilitating the project are the County Executive and Board of Supervisors.

Employees of the county recorder’s office are not permitted to fill in the new forms. Some residents might understandably want hands-on guidance. So the county invited deed holders to come to the June event with their IDs. The assistance was free of charge.

Also, thanks to a grant from the Wisconsin REALTORS® Foundation (the charity arm of the Wisconsin REALTORS® Association), a deed holder may have the recording fee waived for the new document.

Dane County’s Prejudice in Places website was advertised in advance. Announcements included a link which residents could use to check their deed language. Real estate industry groups supported the creation of this online project. It includes an interactive map. The mapping project contains the deed restrictions and has links to the actual language. Residents simply type in an address to begin retrieving information that applies to their homes.

The recent event helped residents through the process for renouncing exclusionary language. (You can read the guide explaining the steps for deed holders to take here. A sample Discharge and Release by Owner form is included.) “Be one of several hundred property owners to share in this significant collective action,” said the county’s announcement for the event.

“In removing these racist covenants, we are not erasing history,” Agard stated. The covenants found by residents will not be erased from the chain of title. But the county will record the new documentation formally rejecting the repugnant language. In this way the county is “writing a new chapter” based on fairness to all.

The county already has a resolution on the books that formally commits Madison, Wisconsin to act on the harmful continuing impact of race-based deed restrictions. Now, Dane County leadership plans to follow up with public outreach and education. Already, the Prejudice in Places website offers a wealth of information — not only about Wisconsin deed history, but on similar efforts in counties and states nationwide. Dane County is also working on making all its deeds digital and searchable.   

Dane County’s Resolution: What’s In It

The form that people are recording follows the resolution set forth by Dane County. The resolution is called Repudiating Racial and Discriminatory Covenants in Madison Property Records. You can see and hear the Dane County Board of Supervisors read the resolution aloud here.

The resolution states:

• Madison, Wisconsin “values and promotes diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in our community” and is committed to finding and repairing prejudice involving race, ethnic background, national origin, faith, disability, sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation.

• Discriminatory deed restrictions excluded named groups from buying, renting, or living in residential developments throughout the United States. This went on for most of the 20th century.

•  Discriminatory deed language is now against the law and cannot be enforced.

• Examples of such deed language still exist in the county and city records “of almost every American community, including in Madison.”

The resolution goes on to explain that the lingering effects of these exclusionary covenants play out in the long-lasting separation of communities, and “lower rates of homeownership and generational wealth for people of color.”  

It then spells out the actual wording on deeds that were in fact used to exclude certain residents:

“Only members of the Caucasian race shall use or occupy any dwelling on said plat, excepting that this covenant shall not prevent occupancy by domestic servants of a different race employed by an owner or tenants.” (1937)

“The premises shall not be sold or conveyed to any Jew, Italian, Negro or member of the yellow race.” (1938)

At this point the resolution states that this language is “morally repugnant, immoral, and has no basis in law…”

This goes for state law as well as the federal Fair Housing Act. Last March, Wisconsin’s governor signed  Wisconsin ACT 210 into law. The provision states that exclusionary deed covenants are “void and unenforceable” and that deed holders who have these restrictions can “discharge and release” such covenants.

Given all of the above, Madison’s mayor and council conclude the statement with a repudiation of racial and discriminatory covenants as “enduring signs of embedded and systemic racism and other discrimination in our society.” The leaders thus resolve to urge residents to use Dane County’s Prejudice in Places website to find and officially renounce the offensive language.

Well Done, Dane County

Madison, Wisconsin has joined cities and counties across the country that are showing the way to strive for respect. And they are teaching us all a great deal in the process.