The Daily Bulletin

Monday, December 3, 1945

RACE RELATIONS COUNCIL
HAS SUBSTITUTE FOR
RESTRICTIVE COVENANTS

CHICAGO, Dec. 3 (ANP) - Neighborhood controls based on occupancy standards are proposed by the American Council on Race relations to replace restrictive covenants based on race or religion.

Analyzing the effect on restrictive covenants and the current housing shortage on community relations, the council concludes that new housing must be developed on a non-segregated basis to check the spread of segregation to other aspects of community living, such as schools and recreation facilities.

The council's analysis was prepared by Robert C. Weaver, director of community services and former special assistant to the United Housing authority, and is published as an illustrated pamphlet titled "Hemmed In the ABC's of Race Restrictive Covenants."

"Hemmed In" maintains that restrictive covenants have failed in the very purpose for which they are designed, protection of property values. The covenants force minorities to expand in a series of unplanned breakthroughs at the points of weakest resistance, carrying with them the overcrowding that perpetuates slum conditions.

New Housing alone is not enough, says Dr. Weaver. There must be provision for the planned. orderly entrance of minority families into new neighborhoods. He advocates property agreements in these new neighborhoods limiting housing units to single families. barring roomers and establishing standards of maintenance.

"Hemmed In" outlines the history of races restrictive covenants, which were introduced after World War I when racial zoning was declared unconstitutional. The pamphlet then proceeds to describe the effect of the ensuing residential segregation on the community's economy and the psychology of the people who live in it.

"Hemmed In" advances a three- point program; abolition of race restrictive covenants, development of occupancy standards, and the building of new non-segregated housing. The pamphlet concludes with a warning that "If we simply create more and larger segregated areas in the postwar period, we will not have solved the problem; we will have attempted to postpone it. But it cannot be postponed without the risk of rising racial tensions and possible conflicts."