Community, students fight to repeal racially restrictive covenants [Video]

(WXYZ) — Ypsilanti Township’s West Willow neighborhood is one of the largest neighborhoods in Washtenaw County. It has more than 1,200 homes in the area, and is now a melting pot when it comes to diversity.

But the neighborhood’s past was recently brought to light after documents showed how racism played a part in who could own a home in the area.

While most of the residents who now live in Ypsilanti Township’s West Willow neighborhood are mostly People of Color, it wasn’t always that way. In fact, in the 1940s there were restrictions in place that prevented anyone who wasn’t white from buying a house in the neighborhood.

Part of the covenant reads as follows: “no lot nor any part of any lot in said tract shall ever at any time shall be used or occupied … by anyone whose bloodline that is not of white or Caucasian race.”

The covenant or documented agreement was used …