Mary Roberts:
I think the language that most shocked me was just how people were lumped at — the language being "no colored people" would be allowed to own this property or to reside at this property. That would be lumped into the same paragraph as language that said you couldn't have farm animals, like you couldn't have pigs and chickens — oh, and you also couldn't have anyone of color reside in this place. I think that really surprised me — or, even how just some of the covenants talked about, you know, they talk about outbuildings. I think there was also a lot of language in there that was about, "You couldn't live here if you were colored," and there would be, of course, an exemption where if you were a white person who owned that property, you could have domestic servants who were Black. So, it was really shocking to me. I think there's sort of this idea in our community that people want to live with like people, so, oh, you know, white people are deciding that they want to live by white people, and Black people are deciding that they want to live with Black people, and we want to stay with our own kind. But I think these records really tell a much different story, that it was just very much built into these property records that you were not allowed to live in the same areas.