<div dir="ltr"><div><a href="https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/counties/wake-county/article281596273.html?ac_cid=DM873574&ac_bid=229629440">https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/counties/wake-county/article281596273.html?ac_cid=DM873574&ac_bid=229629440</a></div><div><br></div><div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">‘I just cried’: When restrictions kept Black people out of
Wake County neighborhoods. By Chantal Allam Updated November 13, 2023 1:35 PM <span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">[Photo of neighborhood]<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Caption: Developed in the early 1910s to attract
upper-middle-class residents, Cameron Park is one of the Raleigh’s most
prominent neighborhoods. Residents have until Thursday, Sept. 23, 2021 to cast
their vote on whether to change its name referencing the family that once was
one of the largest holders of enslaved people in North Carolina. Developed in
the early 1910s to attract upper-middle-class residents, Cameron Park is one of
the Raleigh’s most prominent neighborhoods. Residents have until Thursday,
Sept. 23, 2021 to cast their vote on whether to change its name referencing the
family that once was one of the largest holders of enslaved people in North
Carolina. Travis Long <a href="mailto:tlong@newsobserver.com">tlong@newsobserver.com</a> <br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><br><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">In a 1914 sales brochure for a house in Raleigh’s former
Cameron Park neighborhood, developers appeal to upper middle-class white
residents eager to leave the more racially mixed downtown. They boast of
housing restrictions that “properly safeguard” their interests. <br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><br><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">“Premises shall not be occupied by negroes or persons of
negro blend,” one passage states, except if the person is “employed for
domestic purposes.” <span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">The next line restricts “pigs and hogs,” adding further
insult. It’s a cruel reminder of the county’s racist past. Today’s residents
have renamed their neighborhood Forest Park, cutting ties with its slave-owning
namesake. But it’s also a truth that leaders and amateur historians want people
to remember. <br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><br><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">The brochure is now part of a growing collection being
archived under a new Wake County Register of Deeds initiative called the
Racially Restrictive Covenants Project. <span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Organizers plan to create a searchable and interactive map
of historic racial restrictions that once prevented people from buying or
living on land in Wake County. <span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">“Sadly, these racially restrictive covenants can be found on
the books in nearly every county and city,” said Register of Deeds Tammy
Brunner. “Wake County is not unique.” <br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><br><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">[lot and street diagram]</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Caption: An example of a 1935 Raleigh subdivision map with
racially restrictive covenants. An example of a 1935 Raleigh subdivision map
with racially restrictive covenants. Wake County Register of Deeds <br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><br><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Although the Supreme Court ruled these kinds of covenants
unenforceable in 1948, and the passage of the 1968 Fair Housing Act outlawed
them, the painful, offensive language still exists in hundreds of deeds of
homes, neighborhoods or cemeteries across the county, she said. <br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><br><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Most were written to keep Black people from moving into
certain neighborhoods or to keep them from being buried in certain cemetery
plots, but others may target ethnic or religious groups. In many cases, it
resulted in nearly all-white neighborhoods for decades to come. <br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><br><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">“A lot of people don’t know about them, and many are shocked
when they learn their property or the neighborhood HOA where they live still
includes such racial restrictions,” Brunner said. <br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><br><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><b><span style="text-transform:uppercase">Wanted: Armchair historians <br></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><b><span style="text-transform:uppercase"><br><span></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Husband-and-wife team and long-time volunteers, Lisa
Boccetti and Robert Williams, are leading the year-long effort, which launched
last month. They’re now calling on volunteers to help dive into its archives:
some hundreds of thousands of deeds from about 1920 through 1950 containing
instruments, easements, and leases. To get involved, volunteers are asked to go
to <a href="http://wake.gov/covenants">wake.gov/covenants</a> and fill out the interest form. <br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><br><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Boccetti said they’re hoping to help people understand how
the transfer and ownership of property “have shaped, and continue to shape our
community.” <span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Though she can’t put a number on how many “hidden covenants”
she expects to unearth, Boccetti predicts it will fluctuate from year to year.
“Post-World War II, during the boom years, we’ll expect to see more,” she said.
“We’ll have to wait and see if our predictions are accurate.” <br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><br><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">For Carol-Veronica Reeves, who has worked in the industry
for nearly 25 years, it’s long overdue. As a Black Realtor, she still remembers
the pain of a coming across her first restrictive covenant as part of a deal.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><br><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">“At first, it didn’t sink in, then after a few minutes I
just cried,” she recalled. “I was the only female agent with brown skin in that
office. A sense of distrust sank in at the reality of how we were — and still
are — viewed as non-human by some.” <br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><br><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Now running her own firm, The Reeves Team, out of
Knightdale, she said it’s important to raise awareness “as uncomfortable as it
may be for some.” <br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><br><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><b><span style="font-variant:small-caps">Enslaved Persons Project <br></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><b><span style="font-variant:small-caps"><br><span></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">This new project follows the Register’s Enslaved Persons
Project, launched in 2021 with the help of Shaw University. That project served
to unlock human stories of slavery through the register’s archives. <br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><br><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Volunteers helped to catalog, transcribe and make public the
records from more than 30 deed books containing bills of sale and property
exchanges for people. As enslaved people were not issued birth certificates or
marriage certificates, property deeds and bills of sale were sometimes the only
written records of the lives of these men, women and children. <br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><br><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Those records are now accessible and searchable in an online
portal, allowing hundreds of people to track the history of their families at
<a href="http://wake.gov/enslavedpersons">wake.gov/enslavedpersons</a>.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Read more at:
<a href="https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/counties/wake-county/article281596273.html#storylink=cpy">https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/counties/wake-county/article281596273.html#storylink=cpy</a><span></span></p>
</div><br><span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div>Mimi Kessler</div><div>919-599-2892<br></div><div>"Democracy is not a spectator sport" - John Deen</div><div>Please vote every chance you get. </div><div><br></div></div></div></div>