On July 1st, 2020, Virginia joins a handful of states that ban discriminatory housing restrictions referred to as “racial covenants” that were, until recently, still presented to homeowners in 2020—more than fifty years after the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

This year, we’ll explain how we got here, why it took so long, and how other states can help make racial covenants a thing of the past.

Latest News: HB788 Signed Into Law!

April 6th, 2020: Last year, our team reached out to Virginia Delegate Lamont Bagby to propose legislation addressing this issue.

We’re pleased to announce that effort resulted in HB 788, which passed the Virginia House with unanimous support on February 5th, 2020, and was approved unanimously by the Virginia Senate on February 24th, 2020. On April 6th, 2020, the bill was officially signed into law by Governor Ralph Northam and goes into effect on July 1st, 2020!

We’re incredibly thankful for Del. Bagby and his co-sponsors, Gov. Ralph Northam, and others in Virginia who helped support this legislation.

Our work is far from over, and we are still working on publishing the visual essay. With recent legislative momentum, we’re hoping to include resources and immediate toolkits for homeowners and purchasers to address any discriminatory language attached to their property deeds.

—Chris Fullman on behalf of LMR Leadership Quest ’19’s Civil War History Immersion Group

Subscribe for the latest updates

[mini form]

Media coverage about our research and legislative efforts

  • Chris Fullman reviews deed records at Henrico County Courthouse. Photo by Catherine Komp-VPM

    Mapping Projects Show Lasting Impact Of Redlining, Racial Covenants In Virginia

    Read more
  • Interior of the Virginia's General Assembly House chambers. Photo by Craig Carper-VPM

    House Adopts Bill Banning Racist Housing Covenants

    Read more

  • ‘Legacy of Shame’: How Racist Clauses in Housing Deeds Divided America

    Read more
  • Downtown chicago during sunrise. Photo by Scott Olson-Getty Images

    Everyone Pays A Hefty Price For Segregation, Study Says

    There’s a compelling question at the heart of a report released this week by the Metropolitan Planning Council.

    Read more
  • CNN logo

    Racist language is still woven into home deeds across America. Erasing it isn’t easy, and some don’t want to

    Read more

  • Mapping Cville

    A joint project with the Jefferson School African-American Heritage Center (JSAAHC) that maps inequities in Charlottesville from past to present.

    Read more
  • Mapping Prejudice

    Mapping Prejudice

    Visualizing the hidden histories of race and privilege in the urban landscape in Minnesota

    Read more
  • Detroit's Brewster-Douglass towers seen from behind barbed wire. Photo by Paul Sancya-AP

    A ‘Forgotten History’ Of How The U.S. Government Segregated America

    Read more

Recommended reading on how others are dealing with racial covenants

Have a question or comment? Want to volunteer? Contact us today.

Follow us on Social Media

  

Media Contact

Chris Fullman
[email protected]

Send us a message online

  • If you’d like to share an image or scan of a racial covenant on a property in Virginia, please attach it here.
    10MB max; Only upload the following file type/extensions: .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .pdf, .tar, .tif, .zip
    Drop files here or
    Accepted file types: jpg, jpeg, png, pdf, tar, tif, zip, Max. file size: 10 MB, Max. files: 5.
    • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

    Make Better Deeds is a privately-run volunteer research and public awareness project by members of the 2019 Leadership Metro Richmond Leadership Quest program’s Civil War History Immersion Group.

    We currently receive no funding or donations, nor does this group endorse or contribute to any political candidates, parties, campaigns. That said, we are open to potential financial assistance to support our public awareness efforts.

    Creative Commons License

    “A Research Project for Repairing Broken Neighborhoods” by Make Better Deeds is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

    Website and content handcrafted with love
    in Richmond, VA  by Chris Fullman.