Mapping Prejudice project partner city receives award

Mapping Prejudice has garnered nationwide acclaim for its work identifying and mapping racial covenants, and now, one of its partners, the City of Mounds View, Minnesota, has received the League of Minnesota Cities 2025 City of Excellence Award for their groundbreaking campaign to discharge racial covenants.

Mounds View elected officials invited Mapping Prejudice to support their campaign to mobilize residents around acknowledging and denouncing racial covenants, clauses that were inserted into property deeds to keep people who were not White from buying or occupying homes.

From its base in the University of Minnesota Libraries, Mapping Prejudice’s interdisciplinary team collaborates with community members to expose the history of structural racism and support the work of reparations.

Mapping Prejudice presented at a Mounds View city council meeting in July 2024, where dozens of residents showed up to express their support for a community wide initiative to discharge racial covenants. When the city council passed this ordinance, Mounds View became the first city in Minnesota to require homeowners to discharge racial covenants from their property records. Watch the full city council presentation online.

Mounds View holds the second highest number of racial covenants per capita in Ramsey County. Though unenforceable under present law, racial covenants still exist as part of the property record. The City of Mounds View recognized the importance of acknowledging this history and working to support residents in discharging covenants from their deeds. The process of discharging a covenant adds an official clause denouncing these racial restrictions. The racial covenant is not removed or redacted so that it can remain a part of the historical record.

Mounds View city hall worked with Ramsey County officials to streamline the discharge process for city residents by waiving filing fees and providing free notarization and mailing services. Mapping Prejudice volunteers have uncovered 535 racial covenants in the city. To date, Mounds View residents have discharged 230 racial covenants, nearly 50% of the known covenants in the city.

Mapping Prejudice

Mapping Prejudice works with cities, communities, and grassroots organizations throughout Minnesota to document and map the history of racially restrictive covenants. Visit the website to explore the interactive map and to learn more about this work. You can also learn more about Mapping Prejudice’s partnership with the City of Mounds View in the Star Tribune and on NBC News Now.