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What is a racially restrictive covenant?
What is a racially restrictive covenant?
A racially restrictive covenant is a clause written into a deed preventing non-white people from buying or occupying a property. These existed and were legally enforceable all across Westchester County between 1900 and 1948, but were only officially unenforceable in 1968. The goal was to keep certain "undesirable" races out of white suburban enclaves.
In 1933, Pauline Cockburn, the light-skinned wife of a wealthy black steamship captain, Joshua Cockburn, purchased a property in Edgemont despite there being a racially restrictive covenant prohibiting the sale. Because she could pass as white, the property was sold to her, but when she and her husband built a house on the property in 1936, a court case ensued.
Image courtesy of the Herald Statesman, Feb. 3 1937 (newspapers.com)
In 1937's Ridgeway v. Cockburn, Marion Ridgeway, a white neighbor sought to oust Joshua and Pauline Cockburn of 501 Fort Hill Rd on account of all deeds of the "Edgemont Hills" development explicitly stating that "That no part of the said parcels shall ever be used or occupied by or sold, conveyed, leased, rented or given to Negroes or any person or persons of the Negro race or blood, except that colored servants may be maintained on the premise."
The court case spiraled into a debate of how "white" Pauline Cockburn was, whose mother was Italian and had very fair skin. The Cockburns ended up losing. Marion Ridgeway's attorneys chose not to force them off the land, though, for fear of an appeal creating precedent.
Here is 501 Fort Hill Road today:
*the rock in the front features an anchor honoring Cockburn's legacy as a prominant steamship captain (Image courtesy of Google Earth)
Upon closer investigation, the above newspaper is correct that all "Edgemont Hills" properties had racially covenants attached, and all of the below properties in Edgemont banned Black occupancy.
Image courtesy of the Scarsdale Historical Society
There was one mechanism for Black people to live in Edgemont: servitude. The map to the left, derived from U.S. census data, shows live-in Black servants in Edgemont in 1940.
While the Fair Housing Act of 1968 didn't remove racially restrictive covenants from deeds, it made them unenforceable. While post 1968, prospective home buyers could in theory move anywhere, no matter their race, in practice, the residential patterns of the area had been set, and realtors often worked to maintain them.
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