Racial Restrictive Covenants Project: Recent Project Updates
Hello Everyone!
Happy New Year! The Racial Restrictive Covenants Project would like to thank you for subscribing to our newsletter and for volunteering your time either in person or on Zooniverse. Thus far we have had over 795 volunteers on Zooniverse! Thank you all so much for contributing to this work. We couldn’t do it without you!
Here are some project updates:
We changed our Website! That's right, the Racial Restrictive Covenants Project website has a new design and you can check it out using our same Project Link at the bottom of this page! Additionally, there is now a homeownership page with graphs depicting homeownership in King County from 1960-2020. Here is a graph that can be found on that page that indicates homeownership rates by race:
Additionally, this new page includes graphs on Median Home Values by race, and homeownership by family income and race. Check it out using the link below!
https://depts.washington.edu/covenants/homeownership_king.shtml
We would love any feedback on our websites user accessibility, feel free to email us your thoughts! wacovenants@gmail.com
In-Person Volunteer Opportunity on campus at the University of Washington! We are looking for volunteers to help us search through King County deed reels on microfilm in Suzzallo Library at UW. We also sign off on volunteer hours for High School and college students but anyone is welcome to come volunteer! No prior knowledge or experience necessary, our researchers will be there to guide you every step of the way. If this is of interest to you, please reach out to us at wacovenants@gmail.com
A HUGE thank you to the amazing employees from Davis Wright Tremaine and Redfin's legal office! We had 20 attorneys volunteer their time to join our project at Suzzallo library. They received a presentation about the history of racial restrictions from our researchers, and helped us read through King County deed reels and identify restrictions. They were able to identify many restrictions for our project and made a valuable contribution. We can't begin to thank them enough for their interest, time, and effort toward helping our project. Here is a photo of two of our own, Sam Cutts and Sophia Dowling, helping the Davis Wright Tremaine and Redfin employees search deeds!
Thank you again Davis Wright Tremaine and Redfin!
We have an Instagram! The official Instagram for the Racial Restrictive Covenants Project is up and running. Give us a follow for information and updates about our project, as well as volunteer opportunities!
https://instagram.com/racialrestrictivecovenantswa?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=We have preliminary maps of racial restrictions for King, Pierce, and Snohomish County! The research is ongoing, but feel free to explore the maps of these counties using the link below!
https://depts.washington.edu/covenants/counties.shtml
As you work to transcribe documents on Zooniverse, if you have any questions feel free to use the Talk Board on the Zooniverse website, or send us an email at wacovenants@gmail.com. We are available for questions and eager to help!
If you are able, please spread the word about these volunteer opportunities to anyone you think may be interested! We have also been reaching out to various community organizations and churches to see if they would be interested in learning more about our project and participating in our research either in person or through Zooniverse. If you know of a community organization that would be interested in something like this please let us know, we would be happy to connect with them!
All the best,
Erin Miller (Research Associate, Racial Restrictive Covenants Project)
Learn More About the Project:
Racial Restrictive Covenants Project Website
Learn About Volunteering Here!
Racial Restrictive Covenant Zooniverse Page