Unjust Deeds, an exhibition sharing the history of racial covenants in Dane County and beyond, is coming to Sequoya Library in October.
For most of the 20th Century, racial covenants were an insidious tool used nationwide to segregate whites from Blacks and other minorities in America’s burgeoning suburbs and residential neighborhoods, according to a press release from the City of Madison, and racial covenants were clauses inserted into property deeds to prevent non-Whites and non-Christians from buying or occupying land. Although no longer valid or enforceable, they can still be found in the land deeds of almost every American community, including Dane County.
Racial covenants were made illegal with the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968. Nevertheless, their impacts are pervasive and still with us today.
Local historian Rick Bernstein will give a presentation at Sequoya Library on Monday, Oct. 6, 6:30-8 p.m. that explores the history of racial covenants in Dane County and nationwide. Before attending, homeowners are encouraged to look up their properties using the Prejudice in Places map online to see if their house still has a discriminatory covenant on the deed.
Registration is required for the event. Dane County property assistants and notaries will be on site to help validate documents, and will take the documents to the Register of Deeds on your behalf. Document recording fees are waived thanks to a grant from the Wisconsin Realtors Association Foundation.
On Wednesday, Oct. 22, Alder Bill Tishler will moderate a panel discussion on The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein. The panel members will discuss the book and what Madisonians can do in the present day to combat the legacy of segregation.
The Unjust Deeds traveling exhibit will move on from Sequoya Library at the end of October, but will continue to be viewable at other Dane County Library locations through February 2026.
