Thanks to our elected officials for their passage of Resolution 3125 In Support of the “Mapping Racism & Resistance in Milwaukee County” Project.
Full verbiage is copied below. The resolution passed unanimously tonight to become the first in Milwaukee County.
Be sure to convey your gratitude to President Buckley and Trustees Balachandran, DeMet, Haller, Kasper, Koltun and Serebin. Thank you for reaching out to them in advance of the meeting with encouragement to support the resolution. Thanks also to each of you who attended tonight’s meeting in person.
Thank you for acknowledgement of our past and for working towards a brighter future for our community!
Kindest regards,
Anne, Jenn, Kathy & the Bay Bridge Team
View the recording of the April 27 presentation of Mapping Racism & Resistance:
We are also including the post-event resource guide with brief videos & articles
that further explore the history of segregation and its present impact.
STATE OF WISCONSIN: MILWAUKEE COUNTY: VILLAGE OF WHITEFISH BAY RESOLUTION NO. 3125A RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF THE “MAPPING RACISM & RESISTANCE IN MILWAUKEE COUNTY” PROJECT
WHEREAS, the Federal Housing Administration created a program in 1934 that required racially restrictive language in restrictive covenants for developers to receive financial incentives for residential development; and
WHEREAS, in 1948 in the landmark United States Supreme Court case, Shelley v. Kraemer, the Court held that enforcement of racially restrictive covenants violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution and, therefore, ruled that those covenants are unenforceable; and
WHEREAS, in 1968 the Federal Fair Housing Act made the practice of writing racially restrictive covenants into recording instruments on residential property illegal; and
WHEREAS, despite being unenforceable, the racially restrictive covenants and instruments of years past still remain in the official property records of Village properties and are often circulated as part of the title history to prospective purchasers of real property; and
WHEREAS, various Village homeowners can see the offensive language in the recording instruments of years past because the instruments run with the land and there are currently no laws in place to universally remove or redact the racially restrictive language from the records; and
WHEREAS, the “Mapping Racism and Resistance in Milwaukee County” (MRR-MKE) project will examine racial housing covenants and resistance to them in Milwaukee County through GIS mapping, archival research, and rhetorical analysis; and
WHEREAS, project organizers will be recruiting citizen researchers by holding community workshops on racial covenants in Milwaukee and surrounding suburbs; visiting high school and college classes; and utilizing various social media platforms; and
WHEREAS, project outcomes will include an interactive, digital resource about covenants and challenges to them in Milwaukee County, a collaboratively produced map visualizing the geographies and temporalities of covenants and covenant resistance, and a dataset of racial covenants that will be accessible to the community, policy makers, and other researchers to support broader conversations and dialogue; and
WHEREAS, the Village Board deems it to be in the best interest of the citizens and residents of Whitefish Bay to adopt this resolution in support of the MRR-MKE Project.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Village Board of Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, as follows:
1. That the Board hereby concurs that racially restrictive language found in recording instruments on any real property is offensive, unenforceable, illegal, and unconstitutional, and, as such, the Board hereby disavows such language.
2. That the Board hereby supports the work of the MRR-MKE Project in its efforts to track and map racial covenants in Milwaukee County to better understand how racism has been embedded into the area’s housing markets.
This Resolution is hereby adopted this 6th day of June, 2022.
Kevin Buckley, President Countersigned:
Jaimie Krueger, Village Clerk
https://www.wfbvillage.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_06062022-996
