U.S. States Wave Goodbye to Old-Fashioned, Discriminating Ownership Rules

Several American states have been taking initiatives to get rid of the offending language from property ownership documents that date back to a period when people of color or certain religions couldn’t become property owners.

Such restrictive clauses cannot be imposed since 1948, and they are illegal since 1968, but there was never any procedure to remove the discriminating language that once allowed “no person of any race other (than) the Caucasian race” to “use or occupy” a house – until now.

“Black Lives Matter happened, and there was an explosion of focus on the consequences of race as a systemic problem in our country,” recalled Tracey Broderick, a white homeowner in Silver Spring, Maryland

Determined to make a change, the states of Maryland, Virginia, Florida, and Washington have all recently passed a law that facilitates the eradication of the offensive passages. “There’s more cognizance of some vestiges of segregation in a way there hasn’t been before – and a need to remove those vestiges,” says Renee Williams, a senior staff attorney with the nonprofit National Housing Law Project.