Jim Crow of the North

This past Monday (Oct 21, 2019) we had the privilege of hosting almost 100 people to hear from Daniel Bergin and view his new film "Jim Crow of the North."  This is event was made possible by cooperation between the Nokomis East Neighborhood Association, Restoration Anglican and Crosstown Covenant Church.

The evening began by viewing the film (in case you couldn't make it you can view it below).  We learned about the compounding statistics of discrimination in restricted home ownership, which has limited generational wealth in the African-American community.  The federal government's active participation in housing segregation by red-lining and blue-lining areas of the city (clarifying who could and could not have access to mortgages) went so far as to encourage developers to place restrictive racial covenants in property deeds.  These restrictions have had significant generational effects.


Currently Minnesotans are leading the way in identifying this discrimination with the Mapping Prejudice Project, but also are now working on quantifying the disparity.  What do we do now?  As the data is collected and specific neglected areas are identified, hopefully governments will be moved to improve investments in affordable housing, safe infrastructure and even parks in these neighborhoods.

How can you help?  Mapping Prejudice is still looking for volunteers to comb through home deeds.    You can learn how here.   Do you own a home with racial covenant?  Learn how to find out and "discharge" the racial language from your covenant here on the NENA blog.