December 21, 2021

Mapping Prejudice's newest hire, Michael Corey, was introduced to racial covenants when his parents refinanced their Wisconsin home when he was a child. His family was puzzled to discover that because of restrictions added decades ago when the land was platted, their house was to “never be occupied by a colored person.” Read more about our new Geospatial, Technical and Data Lead.

Penny Petersen, Kirsten Delegard

November 15, 2021

Shenandoah Terrace is a neighborhood in south Minneapolis with a dense concentration of racial covenants. How did these 68 acres of land get restricted for the exclusive occupation of white people? Who made the decision in the mid-1920s to insert racial covenants into several hundred property deeds? What can we do now to repair the damage that has been done over the last century?

Hannah Coble

October 11, 2021

Minneapolis loves lawn signs. The city’s yards are full of signs declaring school pride and endorsing political candidates and philosophies. Lacey Prpić Hedtke, Miré Regulus, and Diver Van Avery wanted to take this civic tradition to the next level. These three artists--who are co-directors of Free the Deeds--decided to use lawn signs to expose racial covenants. They worked with artist stowe silver to create a series of signs that are meant to connect individual properties to this history.

Marguerite Mills

January 27, 2021

Since the project began in 2016, Mapping Prejudice has brought our research into hundreds of spaces through presentation, volunteer sessions, and workshops. From the beginning, educators have asked for resources to bring Mapping Prejudice into the classroom. This month, Maggie Mills, shares details about how to access and use the educator resources that we’ve developed through working with educators and students.

Marguerite Mills

November 19, 2020

Engagement with students and community members offers a window into the challenges and opportunities inherent in a project that seeks to engage a wide variety of audiences. The act of meeting people where they're at is not only a pedagogical challenge; it is also an opportunity for us as "experts" to think about our research in new ways. Read about ways Mapping Prejudice has taken this approach in the classroom.

Kirsten Delegard, Penny Petersen, Marguerite Mills

August 19, 2020

In the first decades of the twentieth century, John Scott worked to expand the boundaries of Black owned land in Minneapolis. In 1904, the Black waiter acquired four acres in the southwest corner of the city, just a block from the 50th and France intersection that would later be known for its high-end shopping. Scott's story illuminates how land was more than an economic investment for Black families; it was a form of resistance. It also shows how hard it was for Black families to maintain control of land during this period of intensifying white supremacy. In the case of Scott, once he sold pieces of his original homestead, it was restricted for the exclusive use of white people through racial covenants.

The Mapping Prejudice Team

September 12, 2019

On August 29, our citizen researchers finished the herculean task of combing through 177,343 historic documents from Hennepin County in search of racial covenants.

Kirsten Delegard & Penny Petersen

May 30, 2019

In 1900, Moses and Mary Burkes bought a little piece of land in the Minneapolis neighborhood now known as Fulton. The area near Lake Harriet was a logical place for a family in search of security and economic independence to put down roots. Over the next decade the Burkes built a little homestead. But they found they could not hold on to their dream.

Kirsten Delegard & Penny Petersen

April 1, 2019

In the very first days of 1910, a group of white Linden Hills residents declared that "a strong attempt will be made to oust" the "negro families living in the vicinity" of their homes.

Kirsten Delegard & Penny Petersen

February 22, 2019

In 1919, the Minnesota State Legislature struck the first blow against bias in real estate transactions with a law that banned religious discrimination in property sales. Local attorney Emanuel Cohen has been credited with this legislative watershed, which was an important first step against injustice. But what were the limitations of this victory?

Kirsten Delegard & Penny Petersen

January 24, 2019

Edmund Boulevard —which extends for 14 blocks along the Mississippi River— is one of the loveliest streets in Minneapolis. But the natural beauty of the street obscures some ugly history

Maggie Mills

January 24, 2018

Denise Pike and Kacie Lucchini Butcher were the driving force behind “Owning Up: Racism and Housing in Minneapolis.” Read more about this formidable team of women.

Kirsten Delegard

December 11, 2018

James Tapley Wardlaw arrived in Minneapolis in 1944. But he could not find a home for his family. His housing predicament was not due to a "scarcity of supply" nor a lack of income. Wardlaw was the executive director of the Minneapolis Urban League, a civil rights organization that came to the city in the 1920s.

Marguerite Mills

December 10, 2018

Mapping Prejudice would not exist without the efforts of our volunteers. Community members volunteer their time transcribing property deeds to help build our map of racial covenants. Their contributions are essential in illuminating the history of racist housing practices, the legacies of which we are still living with today. Meet our first and most tenacious volunteer: Penny Petersen.

Marguerite Mills

October 4, 2018

Mapping Prejudice would not exist without the efforts of our volunteers. Community members volunteer their time transcribing property deeds to help build our map of racial covenants. Their contributions are essential in illuminating the history of racist housing practices, the legacies of which we are still living with today. Meet our first and most tenacious volunteer: Penny Petersen.

The Mapping Prejudice Team

August 30, 2018

Dueling lawn signs illuminate the passions sparked by the 2040 plan proposed by the Community Planning and Economic Development department of the city of Minneapolis. This debate gives Minneapolitans the opportunity to think about how they want their values to be reflected in the urban landscape of their city.

Kirsten Delegard

July 6, 2018

We want this space to be the place where we tell the stories of bad deeds. We have all witnessed bad deeds. But this blog will be focused on the bad deeds in Hennepin County, specifically the property deeds that were saddled with racial restrictions. These deeds made it illegal for people who were not white to live in or occupy the property attached to these documents.