Lakes Area Covenants Project

a local research project to find and map racial covenant property deeds in the Brainerd Lakes Area

What is a covenant?

A covenant is a clause inserted into property deeds to prevent people who are not white from buying or occupying land.

Excerpt from a Cass County, MN deed date 9 July 1930.

Racial covenants were used mainly between the 1920s and the 1960s. They have been unenforceable since 1948 and were made illegal by the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

Excerpt from a Crow Wing County, MN deed dated 23 May 1962.

Crow Wing County || view the 438 racial covenant deeds mapped in Crow Wing County

  • Pequot Lakes
  • Crosslake
  • Emily
  • Lougee Lake
  • Long Lake

Cass County || view the 285 racial covenant deeds mapped in Cass County

  • Lake Shore
  • Leech Lake/Longville
  • Lawrence Township