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Open in new tab This is the deed for my grandparents’ first home in Springfield Gardens , Queens. Notice that the officious stamps on the left that add up to $14.30. The men depicted are former United States Secretaries of Interior. My grandmother was a disciplined saver who bought her home in Queens in 1953 with her husband. The deed indicates that the property had a restrictive covenant that barred owners from selling to blacks. The landmark 1948 Supreme Court case of Shelley v. Kreamer outlawed restrictive covenants (sort of), as they were not legally enforceable through the state but could be enforced by neighbors through social pressure to sell only to white people. Property values were generally stable over time unless there was a shift in population and blacks moved in. The excerpt below from Frederick Morrison Babcock’s 1932 book on real estate appraisal, The Valuation of Real Estate makes the reason clear:
After the 1948 supreme court decision, the neighborhood flipped from 99% white, to 30% white just a little over a decade later, in 1960. According to census data the area was:
98.9% white in 1940, before the supreme court case.
87.8% white 2 years after the 1948 supreme court decision, in 1950
27.8% white in 1960
8.6% white in 1970
2.4% white in 1980, and so forth.
The sellers, named Fleischman, most likely left Queens for the suburbs. When I was growing up the neighborhood was almost entirely African-American. Here’s an image of the house on the left. Not bad, really…
