Mapping Segregation and the Geography of Racial Exclusion

The Mapping Segregation Project aims to help Montgomery Planning document and explain how the real estate industry, laws, government programs, and other institutionalized and systemic actions led to the inequitable development of Montgomery County, Maryland. By examining racial restrictive covenants recorded in the land records, historians in the Planning Department have built a mapping tool that allows property owners to access these documents and see patterns of racial segregation at the neighborhood level. A key recommendation of Montgomery Planning's Equity Agenda in Planning, the Mapping Segregation project demonstrates how historians can find racial covenants using a plat sampling method from the land records, and then catalogue and map that data within the County's GIS system. Adding census and other demographic data to the maps shows how racial steering and exclusion built the Maryland suburbs outside Washington, DC. The project also shows how neighborhoods can remove covenants from their properties, and demonstrates how community planners can use this information when embarking on new master planning and development efforts.

Access this session with closed captions (Wordly)