![Illustration of Minnesota (green) with Hennepin County highlighted in orange](https://cdn.firespring.com/images/85737ce5-315f-4c50-bd16-455c485713d1.jpg)
RACIALLY RESTRICTIVE COVENANTS
Racially restrictive covenants are “private contracts between individuals that allow them to dictate to whom they’ll sell their property.” Racial covenants restricted or forbade property transfer to anyone who wasn’t White, including but not limited to those of Chinese or Japanese descent, as well as Jewish and Black Minneapolis residents. Researchers with the Mapping Prejudice Project found that 100% of the racially restrictive covenants were targeted at Black Americans.
LASTING EFFECTS OF I-94
During the development of I-94, local residents had little influence, lacking access to “legal or institutional tools ... combined with lack of knowledge about organizing.” Minneapolis’ Black residents and other people of color are still more likely to live near a freeway than other residents, which has been, and continues to be, associated with a variety of negative consequences including increased health problems due to air quality impairment.
HOMEOWNERSHIP DISPARITY
The Minneapolis metro area has the largest disparity between Black and White homeownership of any major metropolitan area in the country, “77% of white residents own homes, compared with 25% of Black residents - a 52- percentage-point difference” according to census and survey data by the Minnesota State Demographic Center.
OVERCROWDING
A 2013-2017 American survey showed that Hennepin County residents experience more overcrowding than the average for the region. 8.66% of Black households, 7.15% of Asian or Pacific Islander households, 4.15% of Indigenous households, and 0.65% of White households experience overcrowding. Latine households experience the highest levels of overcrowding at 18.98%.
Sources: Mapping Prejudice Project, Diversity of Gentrification, Politics and Freeways: Building the Interstate System, Twin Cities Fair Housing Analysis by County, State of Asian Pacific Minnesotans, Fair Housing Analysis, Twin Cities Boulevard