Mapping Prejudice in Contra Costa County

The Contra Costa County Clerk-Recorder’s office seeks volunteers for Mapping Prejudice in Contra Costa County, a powerful community-driven initiative to identify and map racially restrictive covenants in local property records.

In partnership with Mapping Prejudice, a national research project based at the University of Minnesota, and with the support of community volunteers, this initiative will locate racial covenants in Contra Costa County. Racial covenants were once commonly inserted into property deeds to exclude minority groups from owning or occupying certain properties or living in certain communities. Although outlawed by the Fair Housing Act of 1968, these covenants remain embedded in property records, silently shaping patterns of inequality and segregation today.

Why This Work Matters

The project is a direct response to California Assembly Bill (AB) 1466 chaptered in 2021, which mandates that county recorders identify and redact racially discriminatory covenants from all property records across the state. Contra Costa County has embraced a community-centered, educational approach to fulfilling this requirement through Mapping Prejudice. To date, 9 million records have been initially reviewed, and thousands have been flagged for potentially restrictive language.

Now we need your help with the next critical step: identifying and confirming which records include restrictive covenants. Volunteers play a central role in this process—and in helping our communities confront and understand the legacy of housing discrimination.

“Mapping Prejudice in Contra Costa County is about more than finding discriminatory language in old documents—it’s about education, engagement, and community healing. By confronting this hidden history, we can better understand its lasting impact on our neighborhoods.” Kristin B. Connelly, Clerk-Recorder and Registrar of Voters

How to Volunteer

We welcome community volunteers from all corners of Contra Costa to take part in this important work. Volunteers will receive training and access to a digital portal to examine historical property records that have been flagged by the University of Minnesota for review.

These documents offer a powerful hands-on learning experience and create an opportunity for community dialogue about our history and the legacy of housing discrimination.

Help Us Tell the Whole Story

The goal of this project goes beyond creating a map or identifying documents to redact. The Contra Costa Clerk-Recorder’s office hopes to inspire community conversations that reflect the voices and experiences behind the illegal restrictive covenants found in the historical record.