Unenforceable racial covenants have lingering legacy in Kansas City Area

Kim Wrench loves the 2½-story modern colonial he bought in the Country Club District more than 15 years ago, but he hates its dirty little secret. Buried in Section 10 of the Greenway Fields homeowner's association rules — tucked between sections on outbuildings and pergolas — are these words: “None of the said lots shall be conveyed to, used, owned nor occupied by Negroes as owner or tenants.” Wrench, who is black, tries to ignore the words that are known in legal circles as a “restrictive covenant.” But he can't. “It's ridiculous that it even has to be on there,” Wrench said. “I look at it as being a form of ignorance and stupidity.” Although many Kansas City area residents are not even aware of them, more than 1,200 documents involving thousands of homes still contain racist language banning blacks, Jews and other ethnic groups. For the first half of the 20th century, racially restrictive covenants were routinely recorded in plats and deeds and placed in many homeowner's association documents not only here, but nationwide. Yet many of the covenants never were removed, even after being ruled unenforceable by the U.S. Supreme Court as long ago as 1948 and banned by the Fair Housing Act of 1968. And their vestiges of discrimination — a kind of “curse of the covenant” — still linger locally, The Kansas City Star has found. Indeed, the latest U.S. census figures show that, while some of the metropolitan areas that had racial restrictions are now integrated, many of those neighborhoods still have few, if any, black residents living in them today. [more]