In 1911, a neighborhood in St. Louis, Missouri, established a racially restrictive covenant aimed at prohibiting African Americans and Asian Americans from residing in the area. Decades later, in 1945, an African American family, the Shelleys, purchased a home in the neighborhood. In response, Louis Kraemer filed a lawsuit to enforce the covenant and block the Shelleys from moving in. A similar legal dispute emerged in Detroit, Michigan, leading to parallel court rulings. Both state supreme courts upheld the covenants, reasoning that they constituted private agreements rather than state actions. The U.S. Supreme Court later consolidated the cases for appeal.
A century after the devastating Tulsa Race Massacre destroyed the thriving Black community in the Greenwood District, the city has intensified efforts to uncover unmarked graves believed to...
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