How Did JC Nichols Use Restrictive Covenants?

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Jesse Clyde “J.C.” Nichols was a real estate developer; most notably in Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas. Nichols developed the Country Club District, which includes The Country Club Plaza, in Kansas City, MO. The largest contribution to the population of Kansas City that Nichols gave was not a building, a statue, or even a district; it was the segregation of african americans using certain parts of a deed. Restrictive covenants are agreements on a deed that restrict the owner. Restrictive covenants are still common now, there are still covenants that do not allow for the use of a home business or any additions to be made to the home. The restrictive covenants that Nichols had written into the deeds of the land he developed were done so to …show more content…

Nichols enhanced and streamlined the use of restrictive covenants. Using the fears of property values decreasing, Nichols added a racial restriction into the deeds. In all of the deeds for the land he developed was this restriction, “None of said lots may be conveyed to, used, owned or occupied by negroes as owners or tenants.”1 While this might seem like an isolated instance, restrictive covenants occurred all over the United States in the early 20th century. J.C. Nichols employed an addition that would enhance the covenant and make it more appealing to the “desired” homeowner; that addition was a self-renewing contract every 25 years.2 The reasoning behind the 25 year automatic renewal of the contracts was to ensure that the restrictions stayed in place for a longer amount of time. The only way to stop the automatic renewal was to have the homeowners that owned the most property write to the Register of Deeds stating that they want the restrictions removed, but that may only happen after every 25 year …show more content…

Nichols had done many activities within the community and encouraged other cities to adopt his community activities. Some of the things he suggested that were being done in Kansas City were; kids activities, outdoors events, educational lectures, clubs, Christmas activities, community service and golf.5 Nichols had great ideas, yet did not share those ideas or assist the african american community. While predominantly african american parts of the city diminished, the communities he developed flourished. The white communities had the best schools, parks, playgrounds, and churches; the african american communities had schools that were poor, parks and playgrounds that were unkempt and dirty, and only few