Finished! Looks like this project is out of data at the moment!
This project has been built using the Zooniverse Project Builder but is not yet an official Zooniverse project. Queries and issues relating to this project directed at the Zooniverse Team may not receive any response.
Please sign in and help identify and transcribe racial covenants in Washington state. Deed restrictions were a key instrument of racial subordination and segregation and still haunt Washington’s cities and suburbs
Learn moreYOU MUST SIGN IN or your work will not be recorded (top right corner). Choose one of the batches below. PLEASE NOTE: in the Thurston batch you are asked to identify the volume and page. This should be DEED RECORD and page.
Zooniverse Talk
Chat with the research team and other volunteers!
Racial Restrictive Covenants - Washington State Statistics
View more statsKeep track of the progress you and your fellow volunteers have made on this project.
Every click counts! Join Racial Restrictive Covenants - Washington State's community to complete this project and help researchers produce important results. Click "View more stats" to see even more stats.
By the numbers
Message from the researcher
“For too long it has been convenient to ignore the history of segregation in our region, even while that history continues to shape unequal opportunity structures. We cannot move forward without honestly addressing this past. ” James Gregory
jngregoryAbout Racial Restrictive Covenants - Washington State
The language of segregation haunts the cities and suburbs of Washington State. Racist restrictions, although now illegal, remain in the deeds and other property records of hundreds of neighborhoods, a toxic residue from the decades when racial segregation and exclusion was allowed, indeed promoted, by local governments throughout the state. Racial deed restrictions became common after 1926 when the U.S. Supreme Court validated their use. The restrictions were an enforceable contract and an owner who violated them risked forfeiting the property. Many neighborhoods prohibited the sale or rental of property to Asian Americans and Jews as well as Blacks.
Authorized by the state legislature under SHB 1335, this project is charged with identifying and mapping neighborhoods covered by racist deed provisions and restrictive covenants. To date the project has found documents covering about 20,000 properties in King County. You can find a map, database, and more about the project at our website.
Image credit: UW College of Arts & Sciences/ Artwork by Marissa Rowell