Racial Covenants as Mechanisms of Exclusion
a presentation by Maura Fennelly

July 11, 2023, 1-2 pm

In Person at the Evanston History Center
225 Greenwood St., Evanston, IL 60201
Registration Required. See below to RSVP.
Free and open to all!

Doors open at 12:45 pm

Join us at the Evanston History Center for a presentation by Maura Fennelly, Research Coordinator for the Chicago Covenants Project. Maura’s presentation will highlight research from the Chicago Covenants Project, a volunteer-led research project working to identify the location of every racial covenant in Cook County. At the start of the 20th century, real estate organizations and white homeowners used racial covenants to exclude people of color from neighborhoods across the United States. Maura will discuss the history of racial covenants in Cook County by highlighting some of the Chicago Covenants Project’s ongoing findings, including covenants found in Evanston. Maura will also discuss how covenants are only one mechanism of housing exclusion and she will examine other mechanisms still in use today.

Maura Fennelly is a PhD Candidate in Sociology at Northwestern University. She examines peoples’ relationship to housing. Her dissertation focuses on homeowners’ associations and their influence on residential life. Her past research includes a study of the planning of the Obama Presidential Center and another study on inequality in local neighborhood participation. Maura Fennelly can be reached at: mfennelly@u.northwestern.edu