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Mapped racial covenants, produced by Mapping Prejudice volunteers and collaborators nationwide.

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U.S. racial covenants data

Mapped racial covenants, produced by Mapping Prejudice volunteers and Mapping Prejudice and collaborators nationwide. Data maintained by Mapping Prejudice.

Current spatial and data files

Please note that these files are works in progress. Both the data and data formats are subject to change as we add covenants and refine our processes.

These files represent the covenants that have been successfully mapped and do not include unmapped covenants which have not yet been matched to modern properties.

Available datasets

State Jurisdiction Notes Suggested Citation
Minnesota Anoka County In progress Citation
Minnesota Dakota County Complete Citation
Minnesota Olmsted County In progress Citation
Minnesota Ramsey County In progress Citation
Minnesota Washington County In progress Citation
Minnesota Hennepin County No active work, but will likely add covenants in the future. Data ported from official DRUM repository (see below) to match our updated data schema Citation
Wisconsin Milwaukee County In progress Citation

Suggested citation

For work that spans multiple counties, please use the following citation for the overall dataset:

Corey, Michael; Petersen, Penny; Delegard, Kirsten; Gillette, Rebecca; Mattke, Ryan; Ehrman-Solberg, Kevin; Mills, Marguerite; crowdsourcing community volunteers. (2024). U.S. Racial Covenants Series, Hosted by Mapping Prejudice.

For work that only involves a single jurisdiction, see individual folders for location-specific citations.

File formats

Each local data set should include:

  • Shapefile (e.g.: /mn-ramsey-county/covenants-mn-ramsey-county/covenants-mn-ramsey-county.shp)
  • GeoJSON (e.g. /mn-ramsey-county/covenants-mn-ramsey-county.geojson)
  • CSV (e.g. /mn-ramsey-county/covenants-mn-ramsey-county.csv)
  • Excel (e.g. /mn-ramsey-county/covenants-mn-ramsey-county.xslx)

Hennepin County covenants compatibility versions

Please note that the official version of the Hennepin County covenants is published here. However, the Hennepin County files here are provided in order to facilitate quicker mapping of the Hennepin County data alongside data from other jurisdictions. It is a copy of the official shapefile, with fieldnames and date formats changed to match our updated data format.

Spatial notes

GeoJSON and shapefile are unprojected WGS-84 (SRID:4326)

(Note: Legacy Hennepin shapefile, available in DRUM, is projected UTM.)

Data fields in downloadable files

Field name Data type Description
db_id Integer Internal database primary key
workflow Varies Internal workflow ID
cnty_name String County name
cnty_fips String County 5-digit FIPS code
doc_num String Government document number of historical property deed
deed_year Integer Year of historical deed/covenant. Since covenants are often repeated in subsequent deeds when a property is sold, we have attempted to identify the earliest deed with the racial covenant.
deed_date Date, YYYY-MM-DD Date deed recorded. Primary date for Ramsey County covenants. Present in many Hennepin County covenant entries, but not all
exec_date Date, YYYY-MM-DD Date deed was executed. Primary date for Hennepin County covenants, missing in Ramsey County.
cov_text String Text of racial covenant
seller String Name of historical seller, also known as "grantor." Not transcribed in Ramsey County.
buyer String Name of historical buyer, also known as "grantee." Not transcribed in Ramsey County.
street_add String Street address of modern parcel match, according to county records.
city String City of modern parcel match, according to county records.
state String Minnesota
zip_code String 5-digit ZIP of modern parcel match, according to county records.
add_cov String Addition listed in historical deed
block_cov String Block listed in historical deed
lot_cov String Lot number or range listed in historical deed
cnty_pin String Modern county parcel PIN. Not currently accurate, will be fixed in future exports.
add_mod String Addition of modern parcel match.
block_mod String Block of modern parcel match.
lot_mod String Lot number of modern parcel match.
ph_dsc_mod String Physical description of modern parcel match.
join_strgs String A concatenated string of all addition/block/lot combinations used by the Mapping Prejudice automated system to attempt a join to a modern parcel.
geocd_addr String Geocoded address of parcel centroid. Hennepin County only.
geocd_dist Float Distance (in meters) of the geocoded address point from the closest parcel polygonal boundary. A value of “0” indicates the current address point falls within the parcel boundary. Hennepin County only.
cov_type String Which process was used to enter the covenant. "zooniverse" or "manual"
match_type String Ramsey County only. Generally, parcels are matched automatically by using addition/block/lot combinations. But in cases where manual join work is required, the user can specify what type of join was used. Options: "Automatic match", "Multiple single lots", "Partial lot", "Simple lot", "Plat covenant", "Something else"
manual_cx Boolean Whether or not a user has manually corrected the Zooniverse consensus output
dt_updated Timestamp Last change to record in database
zn_subj_id Integer Zooniverse subject ID
zn_dt_ret Timestamp Date deed was retired in Zooniverse
image_ids String List of raw deed image handles
med_score Float Median Zooniverse consensus score, indicating how many users agreed precisely on various fields. Maximum is 1.0 for complete agreement.
plat_dbid Integer Primary ID of plat record in Mapping Prejudice database.
subd_dbid Integer Primary ID of modern spatial subdivision record in Mapping Prejudice database.

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