enants.These documents were contractual agreements among property owners stating that they could not permit a black to own, occupy, or lease their property. Those signing the covenant bound themselves and their heirs to exclude blacks from the covered area for a specific period of time. In theevent of the covenants violation, any party to the agreement could call upon the courts for enforcement and could sue thetransgressor for damages (Massey & Denton 36).Such types of discriminatory ordinances allowed residential segregation to become entrenched in society. These two mechanisms for segregation zoning and racially restrictive covenants effectively perpetuated segregation by limiting housing opportunities for African-Americans.Between 1930 and 1950, the development of suburban communities changed the demographics of American cities. New housing opportunities in the suburban communities stimulated the mass exodus of whites from cities, commonly known as white flight. Whites were highly resistant to racial integration in housing, and withdrawal to the suburbs provided a more attractive alternative to the defense of threatened neighborhoods and led to a prevalence of flight over fight among whites in racially changing areas (Massey & Denton 45).These new, typically all-white, suburban towns luredmanufacturing jobs away from the inner city with cheapland and low taxes, and then used their new politicalpower to leave poor minority families and the increased tax burden behind. When minority families tried to pursuethe housing opportunities in the suburbs, they found fewaffordable housing opportunities, inflated prices, and often encountered government condoned racism, which made relocation to the suburbs impossible (McGrew 4).As whites continued to relocate to suburban communities, they found new opportunities, while African-American families suffered from overcrowding and limited mobility. Predominantly living in the inner city, Afr...
