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- Redlining and Housing Discrimination History in San Leandro
Redlining and Housing Discrimination History in San Leandro
Housing segregation throughout the United States has never been accidental. Decades of racism on a national, state, and local level have kept people of color from home ownership and economic opportunity – resulting in generations of long-term segregation and generations of lost wealth.
The history of housing discrimination is very complex and multi-faceted. This exhibit examines just two specific aspects of housing discrimination that took place throughout the nation and in San Leandro: Redlining and the development of all-white suburban neighborhoods. The goal of this exhibit is not to shame the community, but to help us to better understand the systemic racism that kept San Leandro a mostly-white community well into the 1990s.
Click the images below and to the left to explore the exhibit.
To dig deeper and learn more about housing discrimination in San Leandro and the nation scroll down for additional resources to see links to books, websites, documents and article.
To this day, millions of home deeds across the country still contain racist language prohibiting home resale to people of color. Although racially restrictive covenants are now outlawed and unenforceable, the harmful language is a visible reminder of systemic racism and segregated housing.
What are these racial restrictions?
Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions (CC&Rs) is text in a home deed that describes the things a homeowner can and cannot do with the property. In 1915, neighborhood developers began adding racial covenants into the CC&Rs of new homes, which restricted the property from being sold, rented, leased or occupied by a person other than of the white or Caucasian race.
In 1948, the Supreme Court determined the covenants to be unconstitutional, but they were not removed.
California Assembly Bill 1466
In 2021 Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB1466 requiring all California County Recorders to develop a plan to identify and redact restrictive covenant documents with discriminatory language in their historical records. Upon the discovery of such a document, the County Recorder shall redact the discriminatory language by rerecording the document as a Restrictive Covenant Modification with the language masked so that it is no longer readable. Alameda County will begin to implement this process by July 1, 2022.
How you can make a change now.
1. Obtain a copy of the original document containing the unlawfully restrictive language from the Alameda County Clerk-Recorder's Official Public Records. (The online index of deeds only goes back to 1969. For homes built before 1968 you will need to visit the county recorder office in person to look through documents on film. Most CC&Rs with discriminatory language are from the 1915 – 1948 timeframe.)
2. Make note of the “instrument number” and/or “book number” for the document containing the restrictive language and page number where the language appears.
3. Email [email protected] and provide the “instrument” and/or “book number” and the section and page number where the language is in the document.
If approved, the County Clerk-Recorder's Office will make the changes. However, if the Office of the County Counsel finds that the original document does not contain an unlawful restriction, or contains unauthorized modifications, then the County Clerk-Recorder's Office will not make any changes.
For more information, visit the Alameda County Recorder modification webpage.
Restrictive Covenant Modification
We've gathered the resources below for learning more about redlining and housing discrimination.
Books
(* Recommended Reads)
- *The "Careful" Means of Systematic Restrictions Against African Americans, or: Why There is No Black History in San Leandro by Mary Lee Barr (view pdf version)
- Alien Neighbors, Foreign Friends: Asian Americans, Housing, and the Transformation of Urban California by Charlotte Brooks
- *Not a Genuine Black Man: Or, How I Claimed My Piece of Ground in the Lily-White Suburbs by Brian Copeland
- Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism by James W. Loewen
- As Long as They Don't Move Next Door: Segregation and Racial Conflict in American Neighborhoods by Stephen Grant Meyer
- Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland by Robert O. Self
- *The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
- Family Properties: Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black Urban America by Beryl Satter
- *American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland by Robert O. Self
- Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
- The Warmth of Other Suns: the Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
Films
- A Matter of Place - A documentary from the Fair Housing Justice Center, explains several place-related problems renters and homebuyers encounter as a result of housing discrimination. (2013, 28 mins.)
- Housing Segregation and Redlining in America: A Short History - NPR’s Code Switch explains why neighborhoods are still segregated and how housing discrimination continues to effect families and neighborhoods today. (2018, 7 mins.)
- Owned: A Tale of Two Americas - A look into the history behind the US housing economy. The documentary exposes a foundational story few Americans understand as their own. (2018, 1:23)
- Segregated by Design - This animated film, based on "The color of Law" by Richard Rothstein, examines the forgotten history of how our federal, state and local governments unconstitutionally segregated every major metropolitan area in America through law and policy. (2019, 18 mins.)
- Suburban Wall video: The 1971 news segment that helped expose the discriminatory housing practices in San Leandro.
- Invisible Wall video: The 1981 follow up to the "Suburban Wall".
Websites & Online Sources
- Bay Area Census: Census data from 1860-2010.
- “How We Got Here: Housing Inequity”: The East Bay Housing Organizations provides information and resource links on housing discrimination in the East Bay, going back to colonization.
- Mapping Inequality: Interactive website which allows you to explore the redlining maps and area descriptions developed throughout the U.S. in the 1930s.
- NPR's Fresh Air interview with Richard Rothstein, author of The Color of Law
- The Other and Belonging Institute research on Housing: Articles and research on housing policy history in the California
- Roots, Race, & Place: A History of Racially Exclusionary Housing in the San Francisco Bay Area, report traces the roots of Bay Area racial exclusion..
Articles, Documents and Reports
- Redlining Area Descriptions for San Leandro (Home Owner's Loan Corporation, 1937 - Courtesy of Mapping Inequality)
- Underwriting Manual (Federal Housing Administration, February 1938)
- "New Approach to Race Problem Is Undertaken Here" (San Leandro News-Observer, May 21, 1948)
- Excerpt from: "The Troubled American: A Special Report on the White Majority" By Karl Fleming (Newsweek, October 6, 1969)
- "Patterns and Practices of Housing Discrimination in San Leandro, California" (National Committee Against Housing and Discrimination, May 13, 1971)
- Redlining & Housing Discrimination Exhibit Content Resources (2022)
- San Leandro Mayor Jack Maltester's Response to NCDH Report (September 24, 1971)
- “The White Noose” (by Terry Link, San Francisco Magazine, Nov 1971)
- San Leandro Freedom of Choice in Housing Report (City of San Leandro, August 1973)