Racial covenants

Gov. Mike Parson also signed off on a record $47.5 billion budget but cut a $500 million income tax credit. And he signed a series of bills primarily focused on health care policy, including one that eases visitor limitations at health care facilities.

Missouri would join handful of states that have recently enacted laws to remove racially restrictive covenants from property records.

University of Iowa history professor Colin Gordon found that more than 70,000 St. Louis County homes are located in subdivisions that once barred people of color from living in them.

Racial covenants made it illegal for Black people to live in white neighborhoods. Now they're illegal, but you might still have one on your home's deed. And they're hard to remove.

Unlike some states, Missouri doesn’t have a process laid out for homeowners to amend racially restrictive covenants. But some lawyers passionate about the issue are helping homeowners amend them and pushing for lawmakers to do more.

The covenants, widely used in the early- to mid-1900s, shut Black St. Louisans out of white neighborhoods for decades and had long-lasting impacts on communities. Many homeowners have no idea these legal documents still are associated with their deeds.