Racist deed restrictions remain in northeast Johnson County but erasing them has proven difficult
Two northeast Johnson County cities appear to have come to a standstill in their efforts to eradicate racist deed restrictions implemented decades ago by developer J.C. Nichols. Nothing more can be easily done, they say, and residents have mixed feelings about what should happen next. The U.S. Supreme Court has found racially restrictive housing covenants — instituted primarily in suburban communities across the U.S. in the middle part of last century — to be unenforceable. In recent years, Roeland Park and Prairie Village have made moves to try to erase language that excludes Blacks, Jews and other racial and ethnic minorities [...]