Christopher von Nagy

The project documents housing discrimination in Nevada and how communities of color have nevertheless persisted. It will create a website and smartphone application using mapping, filmed oral histories, archival research, and historical narration. Pursuant to state law, it researches racist covenants, notifies homeowners, and uses local courts and county recorders to redact racist covenants. This project will answer: how was America’s racist housing system created from the “bottom-up,” that is, through the coordinated actions of thousands of government decision-makers and real estate professionals? What present-day legacies remain? Technological advances such as digitization of deeds make it now possible to document and interpret racist covenants for scholarly and general audiences.