[Histmaj] REMINDER: Racial Restrictive Covenant Project - Volunteer Opportunity for Students

[HISTORY UNDERGRADUATE ADVISORS]

*   *   *   REMINDER   *   *   *

Dear Historians,

Please see below (and attached) for an amazing opportunity to engage in research with the Racial Restrictive Covenants Project. This opportunity is fully remote and open to anyone interested. If you are interested in public history, this project would especially be a good fit!

RACIAL RESTRICTIVE COVENANTS PROJECT – VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY

What is the Racial Restrictive Covenants Project

The language of segregation and exclusion haunts the cities and suburbs of Washington State. Racist restrictions, although now illegal, remain in the deeds and other property records of hundreds of neighborhoods, a toxic residue from the decades when racial segregation was allowed, indeed promoted, by local governments throughout the state. The Racial Restrictive Covenants Project is a public history project dedicated to identifying and mapping racial covenants in Washington state. This project was authorized in May of 2021 by the state legislature under SHB 1335. To date the project has identified documents covering about 20,000 properties in King County and the work will be continuing in every county across the state!



How do I volunteer?

We need your help! We recently launched our Zooniverse page which allows people within our community to get involved in the research! On Zooniverse volunteers will be reading property deeds with suspected restrictions, confirming and  transcribing the racial covenants, and answering a few simple questions. The process only takes a couple of minutes and volunteers can look through as few or as many as they like! Volunteers are a crucial part of this research and would not be possible without the help of members of our community. For every 15 documents that a volunteer examines this will count as one volunteer hour served. Time spent attending one of our weekly transcription sessions can also be counted as one volunteer hour. If a student has trouble examining 15 documents in an hour they can reach out to us and we can work with them to come up with something more manageable.



Please email me at jwoods34 at uw.edu<mailto:jwoods34 at uw.edu> or wacovenants at gmail.com<mailto:wacovenants at gmail.com> for more information. You can also sign up for our newsletter and attend one of our weekly transcription sessions. This information can be found on our website<https://depts.washington.edu/covenants/volunteer.shtml>. Additionally, please share this information with anyone who you think may be interested!



For more information, please visit

Racial Restrictive Covenants Project Site<http://depts.washington.edu/covenants/about.shtml>

Racial Restrictive Covenants Project Home Page<https://depts.washington.edu/covenants/>

Racial Restrictive Covenants Newsletter and Volunteer<http://depts.washington.edu/covenants/volunteer.shtml>





Thank you! Please let me know if you would like more information!



Best,

Jazzlynn Woods

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Jazzlynn Woods
Research Associate, Racial Restrictive Covenants Project
University of Washington

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