Good evening everybody uh we’re so glad to have you join us uh once again the title of the presentation tonight is Justice indeed addressing the history of racial covenants and segregation in Washington County and we have a panel that will be sharing this information and so um I’d like to now
Introduce our panel and I’ll share a little bit about each one of our panelists Susan florant is working with Justice indeed as a student attorney in the Civil Rights litigation initiative at the University of Michigan law school after graduating law school Susan intends to practice disability rights
Law over the past three years she has worked for the Minnesota disability Law Center legal services of South Central Michigan’s medical legal partnership AARP foundation and the network for public health law so welcome Susan Justin shell is the director of the superior Superior Design Lab a peer and peer and engaged learning community
At the University of Michigan library his work in the lab revolves around facilitating learning and project development in areas of publicly engaged scholarship community and citizen science accessibility and disability Justice media Productions and more so welcome to Justin Michael J Steinberg is a professor from from practice at the
University of Michigan law school and the founding director of the Civil Rights litigation initiative at Michigan law before becoming a law professor Steinberg was a legal director of the ACL of Michigan for 22 years where he oversaw all ACLU litigation in the state Professor Steinberg has litigated dozens
Of high impact high-profile cases on a wide variety of civil rights issues including six cases that have reached the United States Supreme Court Professor Steinberg and his students working with many community and University leaders recently founded Justice indeed to not only raise awareness about racially restrictive covenants in washingtown County but also
To take action to repeal them welcome Michael Bailey Sullivan is a secondy year PhD student in the history of art at the University of Michigan an arbor specializing in late medieval northern European art her research focuses on the visual cultural of physical and imaginative travel most notably cartography and cityscapes to this end
She has been a collaborator collaborator on the Justice indeed projects since April 2021 and serves as a member of the black washal County collaborative group at the University of Michigan so welcome Bailey Claire zingerman is an associate professor of architecture and art history at the University of Michigan
Where she teaches about the history of the built environment over the last two centuries focusing on its buildings spaces materials methods and social efforts effects about six years ago Claire um working on Detroit area Industries and their social and environmental effects on the region and globally she is part of a research
Collaborative entitled black wasal County at the University of Michigan and will contribute to the larger BWC effort as a member of the race and arts and the built environment working group so welcome to Claire and I’m Joyce Hunter as was mentioned I serve I’m serving as the
Moderator tonight and also I am um the CEO president and CEO of the African-American culture and Historical Museum of Washington County I’m a founding member and I’m happy to share that after being m a museum Without Walls for many years we open to the public on October
24th so I just want to share that and now we’re going to um get into the panel discussion and we’re going to start with Michael thank you Joyce uh I appreciate it and thank you to The District Library for hosting this event we’re very excited to let you know what Justice and
Deed is doing um for those of you joining late I’m a law professor and uh the director of the Civil Rights litigation initiative at the University of Michigan law school um which litigates civil rights cases and works on civil rights projects such as this one I’m also an an arbor resident proud
An arbor resident I have been since 1984 and uh you know there’s a tendency among an arbites to think that uh we live in a town that cherishes racial Harmony and uh there’s problems on the racial Justice front in other parts of the the uh the country or the state but
But not in Ann Arbor that uh you know there’s always been racial Harmony and and white supremacy exists other places but not here and I’m just going to share some um some photos from my neighborhood uh they may look very familiar to you who live in an arbor uh this was these were
All taken within two blocks from my house uh many of you probably have signs like these um this neighborhood stands United against hate uh hate has no home here um but actually hate does have a home here um in fact uh in in Arbor um like you know all parts of the country
Um there are these things called racially restrictive covenants um they were imposed in neighborhoods mostly uh beginning in the in the 1920s and what racially restrictive covenants do is they prohibit people of uh certain races uh mostly uh all people of color sometimes Jewish people and non-christians as well uh
From occupying a home and I’m going to show you the uh Covenant on my house um it here you go this is what it says uh no part of said land shall be occupied by persons not of the Caucasian race except as guests or servants now I first learned about racially restrictive
Covenants when I bought my first house in Ann Arbor in 85 um I was kind of a nerd and I I read the closing packet and I saw this provision something very similar to this and I asked the real estate agent what what’s going on here I don’t want to buy
A house that has one of these and she said oh don’t worry about it these exist on you know thousands of homes in in an arbor and I said well is there anything we can do about it and she said it would be very expensive and and difficult and
They’re not enforceable anyway so so just don’t worry about it and I bought the house I later moved to another house on a little bit on the west side of town in the Maryfield Wildwood neighborhood um and it has this a racially restrictive covenant too the one that I
Just showed you and uh I decided that uh I was going to do something about it one day and um after being at the ACLU for 22 years I came to the University of Michigan law school and I work with lots of great students including Susan Fant and we just we do a
Lot of uh fair housing work and we were looking to raise awareness in an arbor and throughout Wasau County that that there are race discrimination problems right here at home and uh we had the idea of raising awareness about racially restrictive covenants and we thought you know some people were saying why should
We focus on this the Supreme Court held in 1948 that they’re not enforceable um they’re currently illegal why don’t we focus our our work on some something discrimination is that’s happening now and we decided that we were going to do something about it for three maj major reasons um number one
Covenants cause harm right now uh people reading through um their closing packets see uh especially people of color that they’re not welcome in the neighborhood that they’re about to move into um sure it’s not enforceable but it we saw it as being no different than they’re being a signed in the entrance
To the subdivision that says whites only uh it’s not enforceable but it causes um psychic harm stigmatic harm and uh and we wanted to do something about it um also um you know we thought that education about racism starts at home and uh racially restrictive covenants are not the only form of
Housing discrimination that existed and caused an arbor to be so segregated um there are many other uh types of of discrimination in in mortgage lending real estate steering uh zoning practices um redlining that we didn’t have redlining in an arbor but it existed elsewhere but we thought that uh
By focusing on racially restrictive covenants that it would be an entree into educating about um the systemic racism that caused causes the segregation that exists now um many people who move into an arbor you know it’s a very transient Town um they think oh well these neighborhoods
Are uh largely white um be for reasons unrelated to history that you know may be preference of of uh of people buying homes or it’s just so expensive here but they don’t understand how racially restrictive covenants strip people of color of wealth and opportunity uh to attend schools in in integrated areas
And uh and we needed to not only educate the general public but specifically policy makers uh who were taking action uh related to affordable housing and zoning and uh all kinds of issues they need to to know about what’s happening um so uh you’re going to hear
More about Justice and deeds soon but we didn’t want this to be just a project of the law school uh or just a project of the University so um we developed a great Advisory Board of community civil rights leaders um and uh and we have a wide array of expertise at the University
About this and so um The Advisory Board as Joyce will probably tell you in more detail um uh gives guidance to the project um we also um have decided that racially restrictive covenants are are not something we just want to educate people about but uh we want to do something
About it and I think you’ll be hearing later in the presentation about the plans that we have uh so I think I’m going to stop there Joyce and uh I think I’m back on later and then there’s there’ll be time for questions at the end as well okay thank you Mike um so
We’re going to go to Justin now he thanks Joyce um I am going to share my screen and we’ll share some slides as well uh everyone can see that correct cool uh so I’m so uh so as Joyce mentioned I’m Justin shell I direct the superior Design Lab at the University of
Michigan library um and I’m going to talk a little bit about what we know so far about racially restrictive covenants in was theok County um so our colleague Rob good speed who’s in the uh architecture and urban planning Urban Design Department um and Grace Steven who’s actually on this call an
Undergraduate uh research assistant extraordinaire have have looked at where these covenants appeared on the subdivision level in in Washington County um and so what that means is the large sort of uh subdivided tracks of land that individual properties are on and so they looked through um through a
Through a system that was developed with Liberty title um as well as with the Washington County clerk’s office to look at digitized Deeds at the subdivision level and then figure out which ones at that level had a racially restrictive covenant um and so uh the time frame for
That investigation which was over the last year or so um was from 1912 to 1952 uh and that was where um generally where these covenants were utilized uh the time frame these covenants were utilized and through that research uh they found 121 plats or subdivisions had racially restrictive covenants in
Washton a county you can see a map of this on the left I will uh show this this is a live map that is viewable on our website and I will pull that up in a second um breaking down these covenants by decades we can see uh there was a
Large uh uh occurrence of these in the 1920s which happened all around the country actually in different communities uh this was after a couple different Supreme Court uh decisions around other methods that uh people were trying to use to um uh either to enforce segregation or maintain segregation um
And so we see that huge number relative to the other decades in in Wason County as well um 109 of these plats uh limit the sale or use of the property to Caucasian or white people only and then 12 of these restrict the sale or use of
Property uh to colored or African people they’re also as um anti uh anti-jewish uh Clauses as well in some of these covenants and so we see that uh throughout um and again I will show this map a little bit more in a second but this is just some of the language that
We found in these covenants so um as I mentioned before you know no persons or any race other than the Caucasian race shall use or shall use or occupy any building or any lot except that this Covenant shall not prevent occupancy domestic Servants of A different race of
A different race domicile with an owner or tenant so um if you were a servant of a of something other than a Caucasian race you were okay there but you only could be servants um and then another one said premises not shall at no time be used or occupied for manufacturing
Purposes nor by a colored person or persons for any purpose um and often times you will see in these covenants this alignment of sort of nuisances uh and and that’s how they were thinking of these you will see often in these documents these lists are these covenants are are uh lists of things
They didn’t want to the property so Billboards um manufacturing liquor stories things like that um and so that these were were part and parcel of of these kinds of restrictions but that they could place that same sort of restriction and denial on on human beings as they could on a billboard um
So so looking specifically at at the an arbor and Scio city of an arbor and Soo an arbor and pitville Township um we can see that 11% of the parcels which means just the individual plots of land within subdivisions uh contained are contained within subdivisions that have racially
Restrictive covenants and so on this map you can see that um anything that is like an orange or a or a yellow that has a restrictive covenant at the subdivision level um and so you see these throughout uh throughout the city and throughout the area um I think we
Are still trying to understand the histories of these particular neighborhoods these particular subdivisions and um what led them to be utilized in you know this subdivision but not this subdivision what were the historical circumstances or the individuals who pushed forward or pushed against it and that’s something that
We’re going to be exploring over you know in the coming months um along with our friends in the black was County project as well as within uh justice and deed and others as part of our our community Advisory Board um and so I wanted to to show you the map
Itself and you can see this is the the Wasa County as a whole and anytime you see blue or green or purple you will be able to see some of the details on the Covenant um and so this is one that uh we’ll be talking about in a little bit
The Lakewood subdivisions you can click on this Map and find out some of the basic information about uh the document but you can also find the exact language as well um and so you can look around and see uh what different subdivisions maybe it’s a subdivision that you are in
Uh and see what kinds of whether it has a history has a a racially restrictive covenant or not in there um and so this is really early I mean this was a lot of work but it’s also really early in the process and I’ll come back and talk in a
Little bit about um you know why what we are trying to do when we talk about individual Deeds uh that are go beyond the subdivision level because when we talk about individual Deeds we’re talking about an order of magnit ude more in terms of number of documents um
They’re anywhere between you know 500 and 600,000 uh pages of of text that would need to be searched through and so I will talk about that um in a little bit as part of the overall sort of multifaceted multi-art projects of of Justice indeed um and again we can talk about uh
More of these uh more of these um you know specific locations as part of the Q&A but for now I’m going to uh hand it off to uh Susan who will talk a little bit about uh the Lakewood subdivision and the efforts that that Justice indeed
Is trying to facilitate uh with them to have and and repeal their racial Covenant so go ahead Susan thanks so much Justin um hi everyone I’m Susan flant and I am a student attorney with the Civil Rights litigation initiative at the University of Michigan law school
Um and I’m going to speak a little bit about our work with the Lakewood uh subdivision which Justin just showed on the map there um this is a community of roughly 250 homes and they have a racially restrictive covenant um in their communal documents so governing the entire Community um and this was
Recorded in 1925 um you’ll see the text here it says no persons of any race other than the Caucasian 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 and in this particular Community uh the communal restrictions note that this language applies to 119 Lots in the neighborhood so those are the ones we’re focusing on um in particular and like Mike mentioned you know these are no longer enforceable but they do continue to exist in title
Documents and deeds they continue to cause harm Foster exclusion and Signal animosity toward non-white residents and potential buyers in in these communities the Lakewood uh neighborhood came to us um after seeing an article in the paper about a presentation that Professor Rob Goodspeed and Professor Mike Steinberg gave um and they reached
Out about wanting to take action to uh get rid of their racially restrictive covenant uh so that brings us to our work today where we are working on uh putting together an amendment which we’ve drafted um in partnership with the neighborhood and with um other experts we’re working closely with the
Homeowners association board there um and and the amendment contains Provisions which serve to educate the community uh as a whole about racially restrictive covenants and their history and also repudiate them and so there are Provisions indicating that the Restriction does not reflect the values of the community um and the replacement
Language which Justin will show here on the screen uh that we’ve put together so uh the replacement language it will say the Lakewood subdivision seeks to be an inclusive community that welcomes and celebrates diversity the sale or occupancy of any lot or dwelling shall not be restricted based on religion race
Color national origin disability age sex height weight familial status marital status sexual orientation gender identity gender expression military status or source of income so a much more inclusive set of text there than of course what the racially restrictive covenant uh which is currently in the documents says uh so Lakewood has a
Clear process to repeal the uh the racially restrictive covenant based on their governing documents uh in the community the Covenant can be repealed by a majority vote of the homeowners in the neighborhood so we’re working with them to organize the community and they’re doing a lot of groundwork to
Educate their neighbors um and you know gain support for this work um and so soon we’ll begin collecting signatures and uh working to get the Amendments signed and filed with the Register of Deeds office to effectuate the repeal Lakewood is the first neighborhood in Wasing County that we’re working with
This is just our first step um but we hope to work with other communities and plan to do so in the coming months um and we’re also hoping to develop a toolkit so other neighborhoods can mimic this work uh and as Justin mentioned there are some individual homes with
Racially restrictive covenants that are outside of the subdivision Arrangement and so we’re also hoping to streamline the process for individual homeowners in the county as well um I also just wanted to mention how grateful we are to the board of the Lakewood Home Owners Association and the entire Lakewood
Community for their energy and partnership in this work uh you know really grateful that they reached out and are so enthusiastic about diving in and and being the first Community to repal their racially restrictive covenant and replace it with language that’s much much more accepting and
Inclusive and so next I will uh pass it off to Mike who is going to discuss um oh maybe not Mike I’ll pass it back to Joyce I think no why don’t we go ahead and go to Mike and then come back to me that’s fine go ahead Mike you’re muted
Mike thank you Susan uh great job we’re so Community organizing is one way to get rid of the racially restrictive covenant um we I just want to point out that we had some conversation among our group and there’s some similar conversation nationally about whether to to White out the r restrictive covenant
Uh or to repeal it through an additional document um we decided that we didn’t want to just redact it or whitewash history that it was important that there be a record um that you know white supremacy existed here in wash County uh similar to other places throughout the
Country uh and instead we’ve we’ve drafted this document that that repeals it repudiates it rejects it and replaces it um so that’s one way to to uh repeal racially restrictive covenants there’s there’s at least two others that we’ve been able to figure out uh one is through legislation and there is currently
Pending legislation in the uh state of Michigan house uh it’s been uh introduced by representative Sarah Anthony from Lancing and we’ve been giving some technical assistance to uh her and to another group called um Street democracy in Detroit who’s been working on that uh what this legislation
Would do is make it easier for individuals to get rid of the the racially restrictive covenant um there there’s been States across the country a handful of them who have adopted similar legislation um and another way to get rid of these things is through litigation uh which is what my clinic
Does and uh and we’re looking we’re looking to bring a case um it’s it’s still in the early stages but uh in 1948 the US Supreme Court H that courts will no longer enforce racially restrictive covenants um the court did not hold that they were illegal and in fact in an
Arbor and other places across the country they continue to be added to the deeds in new subdivisions um for for some time it wasn’t actually until 1968 when Congress passed the Fair Housing Act that they were made illegal so right now uh under the Fair Housing Act it’s illegal to express a preference
Based on race or religion or many other categories uh in any housing transaction and so it’s our position that it’s pretty clear that racially restrictive covenants are um illegal and that it’s illegal to record them and whenever there is a trans action of property a transfer of property uh the
New the the deed is uh the transaction is recorded by the register of deeds and uh and we believe that that’s illegal and so uh if we were to develop a case um it would be to uh prevent the register of deeds from recording uh properties with racially restrictive covenant
Unless and until the covenants were repealed and we would make it easy for the um the seller to repeal it beforehand and uh and it’s it’s something that we’re looking at very seriously the register of deeds in an arbor I mean in wash County Larry Casten
Bomb is is very supportive of this work as is the whole office and so um you know maybe next year early you you’ll see something along these lines and it’s very exciting that I mean the organizing work that’s being done the legislation the litigation it’s all very Cutting Edge
And we hope that what we do here in an arbor and Wasing County will serve as a model uh for communities across the country well I should say we weren’t the first to to develop a project like justice indeed we’re very we love our name Justice in the capital D indeed um
But uh there there’s been some other groups that have done mapping for example mapping Prejudice in Minneapolis segregated Seattle there’s there’s a few other groups that are doing this work but um as far as I can tell um we’re the group that’s taking it one step further
To to actually repeal the covenants and so uh I’m going to stop there and uh hand it to Joyce okay thanks Mike uh so what I want to mention is Mike mentioned earlier that we had U an Advisory Board just indeed Advisory board but in order to move forward with
Some of the work that’s going on we also have committees so we I have three committees and I just want to share information with you about those committees and who chairs those committees first of all we have our policy committee and is chair chaired by deia Simpson and Jessica lar uh the
Policy committee seeks to ensure that elected officials consider the legacy of racially restrictive covenants and other racist housing policies when adopting House housing policies the committee also explores possible ways to repeal racially restrictive covenants through Community organized in legislation and litigation you’ve heard a little bit about that
Another committee we have excuse me is the history committee and that’s chaired by Matthew Countryman and the history committee documents the use of racially restrictive covenants other RAC racist housing policies in washingon county and the causes of residential segregation in the county um the third committee which is
The education committee um is a committee that actually organized this event and I chair um this committee and the education committee creates and shares content on racially restrictive covenants and the history of segregated housing in washal County through curriculum Museum exhibits and online presentations and we’ve had a conversation we’ve consulted with a
Teacher um in the an Iber District um Anthony Stewart talked to about development we talked with him about development curriculum and he shared that it really this information could be incorporated into the art and to literature history or economics so we’ve been looking And discussing how to develop curriculum packets to
Incorporate the information about racially restrictive covenants so those are our three committees policy history and education so now I think I turn it over back over to Justin uh thanks Joyce um I’m going to share my screen one more time so as I mentioned um before you know if we look
At this map we see the subdivision level and um it’s much more difficult to uh get the get a sense of where racially restrictive covenant Deeds or where racially restrictive covenants live in individual housing Deeds um that requires going through many many many individual uh Deeds that are that are
Thankfully digitized and and are in the Washton County uh clerk system document system but it’s still requ many of these are very old the photo copies they’re not great quality um and and but we’re actually doing better than many other cities where they aren’t even digitized people are looking through bound paper
Books in in City archives and things like that but um our friends at the mapping Prejudice project which Mike mentioned in Minneapolis have developed a a a workflow and a process whereby which they can take um organ take these digitized Deeds uh do what’s called optical character recognition on them
Meaning the computer is going to read the documents and try to determine that you know this uh this line of of the image actually says you know what what we might read as a racial Covenant and then using a platform called Z Universe um we can send
These these pages that we suspect might have a racial Covenant uh to Volunteers in our communities and who can help us not only confirm that a covenant is there uh but also to get the specific language and I think more importantly um figure out where exactly these are and
So we can get a really good sense of and start to answer some of those questions of why were these covenants in this neighborhood but not this neighborhood but also to see how much of these um were on the sort of individual level versus that uh that higher level at the
Subdivision level and so we’re currently working through this process uh with people in Mt Prejudice as well as a larger group of of researchers and Community groups that are working to understand um racial covenants in their own communities as Mike said in DC Seattle uh St Louis Chicago um and
Minneapolis St Paul and so this is something that we’re we’re hoping to launch uh within the next year so that uh people who are attending uh this event tonight can uh take part and help us out um and we’ll talk a little bit more later about how you could help us
Out now but this is what’s sort of uh coming coming down the line in terms of that individual uh deed level restrictive restrictions um as opposed to the subdivision level and again we can talk a little bit more about this in the Q&A and go into some more detail uh
But I want to make sure that we have enough time to get through uh and talk about all the different facets of this project so I will hand it back over to Joyce uh for now thanks Justin and now we’re going to go to Claire zingerman and um
Bailey to talk about the black watching our collaborative Bailey’s going to start us off and I’ll I’ll come in after her so thank you thank you Joyce uh for for helping us moderate and Justin for for going through these slides um I’m going to introduce us to uh the black
Wasa County uh collaborative project which is a project uh that grew out of Justice indeed in spring and summer 2021 um as kind of this project group we applied for and receiv received ceed a grant from um the Michigan Humanities collaboratory which is through the University of Michigan uh this summer um
And we ended up receiving the grant which is exciting uh the grant will fund a twoy yearlong interdisciplinary project revolving around the intersecting histories of African-American community building and racial segregation in Wasa County um kind of broadly during the 20th and the early 2 first centuries um uh blackw County which
Which we also kind of call for shorthand BWC you’ll probably hear me say that a couple of times uh builds upon three existing projects one of which is um the African-American cultural and Historical Museum of wasn County uh with Joyce Hunter here um the summer 2021 Michigan
And the world project which is a public history project led by Dr Jennifer Jones uh assistant professor of history and women’s and gender studies at the University of Michigan and Justice indeed which we’re all here for so there are several goals uh that the BWC has that again are kind of all
Intersecting and all interdisciplinary and to give you a good idea of what we’re doing um we have some bullet points here uh uh one thing we seek to do is to foster a greater understanding of black experience in Wasa County over the again the 20th and 21st Centuries
With a particular focus on post 1945 history we want to understand how local histories May align with maybe challenge maybe complicate National histories about Black Culture we’re centering Community campus collaboration um the the campus side of things involves uh myself uh Professor CLA Zimmerman who’s here um among others and Community
Collaborators um include again the African-American cultural Historical Museum of waston County Justice indeed uh Jessica lah executive director of building matters um and Anne Arbor and Yodi mesin Johnson CEO of nonprofit Enterprises at work as well as uh some iilani folks like iilani based historian Matthew sigfreed um uh designer Charlene Hobs among
Others kind of the last thing that we that we seek to do here is to conduct research collect information of different kinds the way we’re doing this is is by recording oral histories researching primary archival materials house locally as at the aadl for example um and and the and uh the
American African-American cultural Historical Museum a a hm as we like to as we like to call it we are locating secondary resources pertaining to racial inclusion and exclusion in racial in an arbor and iilani and we hope to expand this to wash County in general ultimately what what we seek to
Do is to make these collected resources available to the public hopefully electronically maybe through exhibitions and maybe even through a public art project these are all things that um are in the works uh with the BWC um our job is to kind of be connecting and building on a host of
Efforts that are already underway make them more accessible in the communities of the county and hopefully broadly so I’m going to hand it over to Claire now um Bailey thanks so much um thank you everyone um for coming and um thank you Joyce for moderating um Justin could you advance the
Slide I just wanted to give a couple of examples of the kinds of things that we’re interested in researching and pursuing um we have a working group uh called race and arts and the built environment that Joyce mentioned um this is one of several working groups in the
BWC uh and so in addition to the goal the general goals that Bailey listed above we are more specifically focusing on at least four initiatives one researching the creative creative activities of black artists in Washington County after 1945 and up to the present um which you see uh what you
See in the slide is a recent Exhibition at emu uh of Detroit um black artists uh in the same time period a really impressive moving show and we’d like to know more about these artists and about um artists who lived in uh who who live or lived in in um washingon County more
Centrally um Justice Justin Could you um Advance it one more time a second initiative that we’re pursuing in our subgroup is researching racial segregation through the built environment in the county with a special focus on black building and Community Building um you see a housing protest uh against uh segregated housing in an
Arbor in the 60s uh and that housing in the right Pittsfield Village um which went then was uh desegregated in response to public protest um you could go to the next one Justin Justin um learning about the relationship between expanding Detroit Metro Industries and worker housing in
Epsilen so here is the EMS Washington housing in ellante when it was first built and then last slide um is to um explore the possibilities of community- based public art around the themes of the BWC going forward and I just am showing two um two slides two images from the recent
Opening of the an arbor cultural and Historical Museum um wasent the Young’s uh Nia a mosaic mask on the left and Gregory sip talking about his mosaics artha and Astro Blue on the right and in the middle the African-American Heritage mural um we’re just hoping that uh if
There’s enough interest in our project we’ll be able to sponsor some um local artists in a community arts project um and that that about concludes what we had to say um I’ll hand it back to Justin or to rather to Joyce but I did
Want to um give a bit of a shout shout out to Mike Steinberg and to say how much um we owe to him for this project that this project really grew directly out of Justice indeed and um it’s really Mike Mike was a really inspiring um force in the development of this project
And and I just want to thank him publicly for that um thank you Claire and uh thank you for acknowledging Mike he recruited me and to join the advisory and I really have enjoyed meeting and working on this so thank you Mike um at this point we’re
Going to go to um how you can get involved and that will be Claire and Mike well uh I guess I’ll go first um thank you Claire that was very kind of you uh but this has really been a team effort and uh it’s just it’s been incredibly exciting um to see the
Organizing that’s going on and uh and I think uh hopefully it’ll yield some dividends um in any event if you want to get involved I am putting in the chat a link that you can go to it’s it’s actually a link to our web page uh it
Has the maps that Justin showed you it it talks a little there’s an FAQ um and there’s also a place for you to sign up if you’re interested in getting involved um if I see in the chat that there’s some people here that that have racially restrictive covenants on
Their homes and and want to do something about it um we’d love to hear from you if you have an example of your racially restrictive covenant and want to take a photo of it and send it to us we we’d love to to see that um there’s some really interesting ones across the
County uh some of the uh out count areas especially on the Lakes they have one that says um no persons of African or Jewish descent May occupy this property nor aliens except aliens that’s speaking engl um so uh we’d love to see your racially restrictive covenant um and uh
You know I laugh it’s not really a laughing matter it’s a it’s a very serious matter and and one um that we think will will raise some Consciousness uh in in our County um but yeah please get in touch with us and uh Claire would you like to
Also ideas the BWC doesn’t have a website yet um but uh I suspect that if you were to register in interest in our projects on the Justice indeed website you would find your way to us you can also write to me directly at that email address that’s in the chat um we’re
Looking for people who would be interested in participating um and we’re just open to dialogue with with anyone who wants to get touch okay so thank you Clara and Mike I’m going to ask you if the panel has any um final remarks or something they want to share before we go into
Q&A I I think there’s one more point that I’d like to make lots of people are going to be looking at our map and uh they may find uh feel a sense of relief when they see that their house does not have a racially restrictive covenant and
Think that oh I’m off the hook I I don’t have to worry about this but this is really um whether your house has a covenant or not um it’s something that we all need to be concerned about and be aware of uh as we move forward that um that uh white
Supremacy and systemic racism is something that exists here and if you’re white um we all have a sense of white privilege that um we may not even recognize but um the damage that these covenants did um to Black wealth and black opportunity um it’s it’s hard to describe especially when um when
Combined with the various other housing and employment and police practices so um so please go to our map but but keep that in mind uh as you look at it so I’d like to also thank everybody for coming out uh I want to say again that this was
A a collaboration between Justin indeed and annab District Library and so thank you to The annab District Library I want to thank the panelists and and once again thank all of you for coming out and so if nobody has anything else to add from the panel then that concludes our
Program thank you Joyce for moderating okay thanks everybody have a good evening
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