Sonoma County is working to identify and officially redact illegal racial covenants from real estate documents. The restrictions were originally printed in more than 24-million previously recorded real estate documents. The restrictive covenants prevented people of color from buying, renting or using property. The U.S. Supreme Court declared the practice unenforceable in 1948. It was then outlawed by the Federal Fair Housing Act of 1968. Despite that, the county still finds it important to take the segregationist language out of its real estate records for good.
