The bill targets some land records in Connecticut dating back to the early to mid-19th century that contain provisions restricting ownership and use of the property to people of the white race only.
“Although such covenants are unconstitutional, the legislature officially moved to void the language in state statute and provide a process for people to have it removed from their land records,” House Democrats said in a statement.
The bill “further allows a property owner who discovers that their land records contain a racially restrictive covenant to file a formal affidavit or other document, to be recorded into the land records by the town clerk, to identify the offensive covenant and show that it is void,” the statement said.
Rojas explained how the situation evolved.
“While the Supreme Court declared racial restrictive covenants unconstitutional in 1948, many of these covenants were never nullified or voided and are maintained despite the continued change in ownership of homes,” he said.
“ Today, homes in our communities may be owned by individuals that these very covenants would have sought to prevent from owning that particular home.”
The deed read: “No persons of any race other than the white race shall use or occupy any building or any lot,” with the exception of “domestic servants of a different race domiciled with an owner or tenant.”
The discovery shocked Ware and his father.
“He was stunned and I was stunned. This is the house I grew up in and is the only home my dad has ever owned,” Ware said according to The Associated Press.
“I gave myself a task of figuring out how we could have a statute in Connecticut that would help identify these things and repudiate them, or refute them, or call them out for what they are—blatant statements of racism,” Ware told UConn Today.
Ware plans to spread awareness of the new law and hopes that his 95-year-old father will be among the first to remove racially restrictive language from his deed covenant, reported UConn Today.