Detroit: 80 Percent of Residential Areas Covered by Racial Deed Restrictions

By 1940, an estimated 80 percent of Detroit's residential neighborhoods are covered by restrictive deed covenants barring sale to Black residents. The National Association of Real Estate Boards requires member agents to maintain racial homogeneity of neighborhoods as an ethical obligation. Black residents arriving in the Second Great Migration are confined to the Paradise Valley and Black Bottom neighborhoods. When these are demolished for urban renewal and the Chrysler Freeway in the 1950s, Black residents are displaced with nowhere to move.