St. Louis Racial Zoning from 1916

Mark Mwandoro
Marketing Director
​Community Allies

A racial zoning ordinance passed in 1916 in St Louis forbade its citizens from moving onto a block where 75 percent or more of the residents were of a different race. Landlords and real estate agencies began putting covenants into the deeds of properties that stated that the properties were only to be lived in by white people. African-Americans were left in what was termed the riskiest neighborhoods and could not move to the affluent zones to access better jobs and education. African-Americans became homeowners at lower rates and were crowded into segregated neighborhoods where housing values stagnated. While legislation no longer exists that allows segregation, racial isolation is still prevalent and needs fixing.


Works Cited
COLIN GORDON. Mapping Decline: St. Louis and the Fate of the American City. (Politics and Culture in Modern America.) Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2008.