California History: HIS 3070: Housing Discrimination

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If you're interested in learning more about housing discrimination in American history, considering using the below search terms in library's article search box or several different library databases, to learn more:

HOUSING discrimination

Race discrimination in housing

Fair Housing Act of 1968 (U.S.)

Covenants (Law)

Deeds (Law)

REAL covenants

Racial covenants are restrictive clauses added to original land grant deeds prohibiting certain people from purchasing the property, and in some cases, even residing on the property, unless as a hired employee. Racial covenants were outlawed by the Supreme Court in 1948, but were never officially removed from grant deeds and some grant deeds after 1948 continued to include them.

To see an example of a racial clause on a land grant deed in San Diego County, see: Original 1947 Grant Deed with Racial Clause

From Lassiter, M. D. (2010). Suburbs and politics. In M. Kazin (Ed.), The Princeton encyclopedia of American political history. Princeton University Press.

“By the 1920s, real estate developers and homeowners associations promoted restrictive covenants in most new subdivisions, often specifically excluding occupancy by African Americans, Asians, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, American Indians, and Jews. The NAACP repeatedly challenged the constitutionality of racial covenants during the early decades of the modern civil rights movement, but the Supreme Court continued to permit their enforcement until the Shelley v. Kraemer decision of 1948” .

"Shelley v. Kraemer found that racial covenants violate the equal protection provision of the Fourteenth Amendment, which states 'no state. . . [shall] deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.'”

This redlining map for the City of San Diego from 1935 shows 'grades' given to neighborhoods based on perceived risks to banks offering mortgages. Typically, banks would not lend to homebuyers trying to purchase properties in the 'red' neighborhoods and Black homebuyers, and other people of color, were prevented from obtaining mortgages for properties in 'green' neighborhoods.

The website Mapping Inequality allows you to zoom into different regions in the country to view redlining maps for different municipalities. To view maps, visit: https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/#loc=5/39.1/-94.58.

(To view a larger version of the map, click on the map below.)

(Nelson, R. K., Winling, L., Marciano, R., & Connolly, N. (1935). Street map of the City of San Diego. Mapping Inequality. https://s3.amazonaws.com/holc/tiles/CA/SanDiego/1938/holc-scan.jpg)

• Educate ourselves on racial covenants, redlining, and other discriminatory housing practices

• Donate to entities like the San Diego Foundation, which helps people of color in San Diego put together a down payment on a home

• Legislation, voting, and community activism:

  • Support Rent control 

  • Support use of community land trusts to fund residential housing in the form of housing co-ops

  • Support giving home sellers incentives to sell to buyers who are already from the community and who aren’t necessarily the highest bidder 

  • Support better housing development policies, such as more affordable housing requirements for all new multi-unit building projects

  • Support restrictions on flipping houses

• Be a good neighbor

Other ideas or questions? Please email to rlang@pointloma.edu

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