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The Attorney
General’s Office worked to identify racially restrictive
covenants across the state, and subsequent letters were
sent to a number of different homeowners associations in
the Kansas City area. Some did comply and remove those
covenants, while others did not respond after repeated
attempts, including Country Club Homes and Crestwood
Homes Association.
“There is absolutely no reason to continue to maintain
or include racially restrictive covenants in
neighborhood bylaws or guidelines, and refusing to
remove those covenants is completely unacceptable –
that’s why we filed suit in Jackson County earlier
today,” said Attorney General Schmitt. “My office will
continue to search for racially restrictive covenants in
neighborhoods across the state and will seek to have
them removed wherever possible.”
According to the petition, which was filed this morning
in Jackson County, both state and federal law, as well
as Shelley v. Kramer, a U.S. Supreme Court case from
1948, prohibits or deems racial restrictive covenants
unconstitutional and unenforceable.
For example, according to the petition, “Country Club
Homes Association Plats 5-6 maintains a racially
restrictive provision in its covenant that reads, ‘None
of said lots during the aforesaid period shall be
conveyed to, owned, used nor occupied by negroes as
owners or tenants.’” |
