Missouri drops suits against KC HOAs after removal of racist language from documents

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt announced Monday that he has resolved lawsuits against two Kansas City-area homeowners associations that failed to remove racist language from their governing documents when notified.

Schmitt dismissed the suits after receiving confirmation that Country Club Homes and Crestwood Club Homes Association had removed the discriminatory covenants, including a Country Club provision stating that “None of said lots during aforesaid period shall be conveyed to, owned, used nor occupied by negroes as owners or tenants.”

“There should be no place whatsoever in our society for racially restrictive covenants, so I am very pleased we were able to achieve this resolution,” Schmitt said in a statement.

The attorney general’s office contacted a number of Kansas-City area homeowners associations to notify them that racist language in their governing documents rendered them illegal. Schmitt filed suit against Country Club Homes and Crestwood Homes in September, alleging that neither association responded to his office’s warnings.

According to the release, Crestwood Homes removed the racist language from its covenants on Sept. 29, four days after Schmitt filed suit. Country Club Homes did not comply until Nov. 19.

Contacted by phone Monday afternoon, Country Club Homes President Sharon McNulty declined to comment. Crestwood Homes could not be reached for comment.

For the first half of the 20th century, homeowners associations across the nation routinely imposed discriminatory covenants barring Blacks, Jews and other minority groups from owning or occupying property.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled such covenants unenforceable as early as 1948 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 banned them altogether. Much of the racist language, however, remained in HOA governing documents.

Prominent Kansas City developer J.C. Nichols was one of the first to promote such racial restrictions, building dozens of subdivisions in the Kansas City area from 1908 through the 1940s that prohibited housing sales to Blacks.

Schmitt said his office is working to eradicate racially restrictive housing language across Missouri.

“My office will continue the fight to identify and remove such restrictions in neighborhoods across the state and encourage Missourians to contact our office if you are aware of similar community restrictions,” Schmitt said.