Austin nonprofit mobilizes to get racist language removed from Texas home deeds

Robie Dodson has been working as a real estate agent in Austin for seven years. Unsurprisingly, as a realtor, she frequently encounters deeds. “I don’t typically read them,” she admitted. “That’s just crazy. These are huge, long documents. But back in 2016, I did have to read one.” That is because this deed had something written in it so abhorrent it stopped her in her tracks, she said. The home’s deed had a clause that stated no part of the property could be bought, sold or leased to anyone who did not have strict Caucasian blood. “I was totally shocked,” Dodson, who is a white woman, said. Her client who was interested in buying the home was equally offended. “My client said they didn’t want a house that had that attributed to it. And so, they pulled away, and we just moved on.”

The racist language Dodson found is called a racially restrictive covenant, and they are not uncommon in Austin. Racially restrictive covenants were used in the first part of the 20th century by white homeowners to prevent people of color from moving into their neighborhoods. In 1948, the Supreme Court decided that these covenants cannot be enforced, however, the language remains on many deeds across the country. In 2021, the Texas House of Representatives passed House Bill 1202, which aimed to make it easier for homeowners to remove the covenants. HB1202 did not pass in the Texas Senate, but another similar bill, Senate Bill 30, did. SB30 streamlines the process for property owners to remove racially restrictive covenants, but Texas House Rep. Erin Zwiener, D- Blanco and Hays, thinks the bill could be adjusted to make it even easier. “It’s a step forward. It removes filing fees, it makes the process smoother, but it does still require every single property owner to have the capacity to know how to file this document with the court,” Zwiener said.