WHAT SYSTEMIC RACISM LOOKS LIKE:

When Nichols started planning communities, in the early 1900s, developers were largely derided as "curbstoners." They bought property, divided it into lots, threw down curbstones, and moved on, oblivious to the future well-being of homebuyers. A transformative idea dawned on Nichols: stringent restrictions.

Also known as covenants, they'd existed for decades, typically as an agreement between a developer and buyer on a single lot, proving unpopular to Americans who didn't want to be controlled on their own property. But Nichols sensed he could foster long-term stability, which would be profitable for him and for homeowners. He initiated restrictions on entire neighborhoods, placing them on the land before any lots were sold--a private zoning system before municipal zoning was widespread. He's credited as the first developer to emphasize the covenants for middle-class areas and to make them self-renew after periods of 25 to 40 years unless a majority of residents objected, ensuring they'd essentially last forever. For enforcement, he set up homeowners associations.

Nichols' restrictions started with a few sentences on neighborhood plat documents and eventually ran for a few pages. They set minimum prices for home construction, mandated single-family housing and banned apartments, required a specified amount of space on the fronts and sides of homes, and regulated routine housing elements like chimneys, trellises, windows, vestibules, and porches.

There were also racial restrictions that barred Black residents from owning or renting homes. An early billboard for Nichols' Country Club District development described the area as "1,000 Acres Restricted." Newspaper ads claimed that Nichols' neighborhoods blocked "all undesirable encroachments" and promised that "complete uniformity is here assured."

"Uniformity" proved to be a helluva business for Nichols: "And we find that the more restrictions we can put on," he wrote in a 1923 Good Housekeeping essay, "the more cheerfully is the land bought."

Tweet   @brothersjudd