Sophomore raises awareness about housing discrimination

Soledad Lee
Social Media/Graphics Editor

bestie sam — Sophomore Sam Enlund presents a sign displaying restrictive covenants in Webster groves. Photo provided by Sam Enlund

“It’s the legal stuff… the wording that people just skim over and don’t really look at, that’s the biggest part of what needs to be changed,” sophomore Sam Enlund said.

Enlund began working on an impact project for the summer camp STL Changemakers in summer 2023 looking into Saint Louis’s history. Her focus though is specifically Webster’s history with racial restrictive covenants and communicating that to citizens.

The project began with Enlund connecting with Mayor Laura Arnold.

“My aunt connected me with the mayor. She’s friends with Mayor Arnold and knew about the project she was working on…I started working with her more and more on racial restrictive covenants and trying to get them amended in Webster Groves,” Enlund said.

Racially restrictive covenants are defined by Enlund as, “Language in housing deeds, that restricts where people can live. Specifically where black people could live in the 1940s, and that area of time. It added to the historical segregation, and the divide between white people and black people at the time.”

“More than 30 subdivisions in Webster Groves, with more than 1000 houses, have racially restrictive covenants as a part of their property deeds,” according to http://www.webstergrovesmo.gov.

Enlund focuses on communicating with the community members to encourage them to check if their housing deed has restrictive covenant; citizens can do this by contacting Enlund at sjenlund2008@gmail.com or going on the city website, http://www.webstergrovesmo.gov.

Keeping the history of the housing deeds is important to make sure not to erase history; Enlund encourages citizens to release the covenants from their homes by changing the language on the deed that the language is wrong.

Although Enlund has been working on this in Webster, she isn’t the first person to look into this.

“I hopped onto a project that was already started. There was a WashU professor (Molly Metzger), that did a ton of research with students…There was one guy (history professor Colin Gordon of Iowa University) that worked pretty deeply into it and his main focus has been racial restrictive covenants and has made a map that maps out the entire Saint Louis area with all the racial restrictive covenants,” Enlund said.

Enlund also highlighted what she hopes Webster citizens will take from her project.

“The project was really about uniting Webster around its history. Moving Webster forward to be a more inclusive community… A community that recognizes its mistakes and recognizes backgrounds from people from all different walks in life,” Enlund said.

Overall Enlund has helped over 50 residents to become aware and make a difference.