Mapping Racist Covenants exposes Tucson’s race-restricted neighborhoods
From the Desk of Lynn Davis - JCRC Director
Several months ago, Tucson Jewish Museum & Holocaust Center was invited to become a community partner for Mapping Racist Covenants, a research project by University of Arizona professor and population geographer, Jason Jurjevich. Jurjevich and his team had set out to map the covenants, conditions, and restrictions (CCRs) of Tucson-area subdivisions to determine which of them still contained language prohibiting minority and ethnic groups from owning property within their bounds.
Over the course of the project, Jurjevich and his team dug into the CC&Rs of more than 750 local subdivisions and discovered that over a quarter of them had language prohibiting non-white residents. You might wonder why a subdivision would still leave this language on the books, and the answer is complicated. Even though these restrictions are illegal and unenforceable (following passage of the federal Fair Housing Act of 1968), many of these legally-binding documents state explicitly that these prohibitions shall remain in effect in perpetuity, even after other elements of the CCRs may have been amended or removed.
At first glance, a Jewish museum may seem to be an unlikely partner in this endeavor. But in addition to educating about the Holocaust and other genocides and preserving the first synagogue built in the Arizona Territory, the Museum’s mission includes exploring the legacy of Jewish experience in Southern Arizona, and collaborating with Tucson’s diverse community to promote human rights.
In Antisemitism & Exclusion, one of our core exhibits, members of that diverse community have been invited to share their personal experiences. In recorded testimonies, people of all ages share their experiences with anti-LGBTQ discrimination, the painful absence of the recorded history of Black Tucsonans, gender exclusion at the law school, what it means to be an undocumented individual in our community, and more.
Among those stories is that of Stanley Feldman. When five-year-old Stanley and his family first moved to their house in Colonia Solana, in the late 1930s, they were confronted by neighbors who informed them that home ownership in the subdivision was limited to “those of the Christian faith and Anglo-Saxon race.” They weren’t forced to move out, but the compromise was that they were to remove their name from the mailbox so no one would know that a Jewish family lived there (and so that other Jews wouldn’t be encouraged to move in). Feldman went on to graduate from the UA College of Law and would later become an Arizona Supreme Court Justice. But when you listen to his recording, you can still hear the pain and confusion he felt as a young boy.
When I attended the opening reception for the MRC Project last fall, I heard the term “dignitary harm” for the first time, and it’s stuck with me. Dignitary harm is the psychological damage and trauma caused by just this sort of indignity and injustice, one that undermines an individual’s self-esteem and erodes the fabric of our community. While the subdivisions and the CCRs can be counted, it’s impossible to quantify the damage that these racist practices have caused over the years, and the harm they could still cause if not addressed.
TJMHC is honored to have played a role in this important research, and we applaud Jason and his team for taking on this task. Please take a moment to explore the project’s website and view the interactive map. You can learn more at mappingracistcovenants.org.
