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Racially Restrictive Housing Covenants
Racially restrictive housing covenants were a major part of Los Angeles housing development and selling of real estate. Racially restrictive Covenants were court approved agreements included in title deeds that prohibited the selling of property to certain races. The first Racially restrictive covenant in Los Angeles dates to 1902 and used the term “non-Caucasians” to restrict people of color from dwelling in that home. Other language used in covenants excluded specific ethnic groups and sometimes only allowed “non-whites” to occupy a property if they were domestic workers.

Racially restrictive covenants were implemented by housing developers, real estate agencies, and homeowners associations for the purpose of creating racial and class segregated neighborhoods. Racially restrictive covenants were also implemented in housing developments to secure homogenous and economically stable neighborhoods. The Janss Investment Company built the community of Westwood. They included racial restrictions in all of their properties that specifically excluded, “any person who is not of the white or the Caucasian race”. Examples of communities in Los Angeles that were built with racial restrictions in deeds are Thousand Oaks,Palos Verdes, Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Westchester, Panorama City, Westside Village, and Toluca Woods among others.

In 1892 the federal courts ruled that neither state nor city governments themselves could discriminate but upheld the right to enter into racial and class restrictive covenants. In the period between 1900 and 1920 Los Angeles experienced a boom in housing development during which Racially Restrictive covenants became widespread. By 1939, almost 47% of Los Angeles County residential neighborhoods upheld racially restrictive covenants.

Restricting people of color from many neighborhoods across Los Angeles resulted in the formation of multiracial neighborhoods. Among Historically multiracial neighborhoods in Los Angeles are the likes of Boyle Heights, Watts, Belvedere, and South Los Angeles. These neighborhoods were notably poor and composed of Blacks, Latinos, Asian Americans, Jews, and Italians.

Racially Restrictive covenants were finally overturned in two landmark cases. Shelley V. Kraemer in 1948 prohibited racially restrictive covenants and invalidated their use in court. The 1956 Barrows V. Jackson case the Supreme Court ruled that racially restrictive covenants were unconstitutional under the 14th amendment. It stated that “The enforcement of a covenant forbidding use and occupancy of real estate by non-Caucasians, by an action at law in a state court to recover damages from a co-covenantor for a breach of the covenant, is barred by the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution.” In 1964, California voters approved Proposition 14 which attempted to validate housing discrimination. However, the proposition was repealed and deemed unconstitutional by the California Supreme Court. While many home deeds in Los Angeles still contain restrictive covenant clauses, they are not legally enforceable.