Hacking Into History: Discovering Racial Covenants in Durham Property Deeds

About the Program

Category: Arts, Culture and Historic Preservation (Best in Category)

Year: 2023

Hacking Into History: Discovering Racial Covenants in Durham Property Deeds is a collaborative project between DataWorks NC, The School of Library and Information Sciences Library at North Carolina Central University (NCCU), Research Action Design, Yinsome Group, the Robinson Bradshaw Law Office and the Durham County Register of Deeds. HIH aims to tell the story and impact of racially restrictive covenants contained in property deeds in Durham, North Carolina using public records information and archival documentation. As instruments of discrimination, racially restrictive covenants codified segregation into law, but also allowed segregation to persist once the federal government had begun making it illegal. The resulting widespread economic and social disenfranchisement has resonated across generations. These restrictions are still part of the property deeds in communities across the country today and we believe the practice of interrogating them as a community can inform our efforts to dismantle racism in Durham County. Project goals include: (1) to inform community members about the history of exclusionary zoning restrictions in Durham; (2) to provide context for the city’s current affordable housing crisis; (3) to empower community participation in translation efforts and analysis of legacy documentation, turning handwritten documentation into human and machine-readable “data.”