Prevented the Accumulation of Generational Wealth in Towns Across the Nation.
An Introduction to Burlington Vermont
The Slavery Reparations Series by Tia Simmons
Hello readers! I have so missed having the opportunity to share with you all over the last month. On March 5, I was involved in a head-on collision driving home from work after another driver entered my lane travelling in the wrong direction. I didn’t even have time to hit the brakes. Fortunately, I sustained only minor injuries, a piece of my car’s dashboard went completely through my left leg. I had to pack it for the first couple weeks until I could have staples and then eventually sutures placed. I also had a mild brain injury causing some memory loss and difficulty concentrating. Bumps and bruises. But overall I am fine and it could have been so much worse, so I am very grateful to be with you all today. My family and I appreciate the love and support from everyone at BLACK and our friends and family in the community.
Burlington, Vermont, population 44,448. It is the most populous town in the state of Vermont, the center of their economic health. The city has a lengthy and complex history dating back to 1783 when it first was settled. Burlington was officially organized as a town in 1785 and by 1810 had a population of 1,690. Clearly, this small colonial town has grown exponentially over the 223 years since it was first established. As you may imagine, their history is rich with the issues that plagued the rest of early America, issues relating to slavery ranking top on that list.
The first enslaved Africans came into America in 1610. Vermont, however, became the first state to abolish slavery when it ratified its own Constitution declaring the state a sovereign country on July 2, 1777. One of the reasons for abolition in their Constitution was to set them apart from surrounding New England colonies, such as Connecticut and New Hampshire, where the slave trade was so predominant. It was not until 1791 that Vermont joined the union, the fourteenth state to do so, and gave up its own national independence. During the period after Vermont had technically abolished slavery via their constitution, (which used weak suggestive words like “ought” instead of declarative ones like “shall,” a lesson Pennsylvania learned from when drafting their own version of the state constitution) slavery nonetheless continued. For the first nine years after the constitution was adopted, there wasn’t even an established repercussion or punishment for owning/selling slaves! Many Africans were kidnapped from Vermont and then taken out of the state to be sold, since it was technically illegal there. But the illegality was, at best, a technicality. “Chapter 1 [of the Vermont 1777 Constitution] affirms that “all men” have “certain natural, inherent and unalienable Rights,” and that no adult without consent “ought to be holden by law to serve any person as a Servant, slave or apprentice.”” What does that mean exactly? That men over the age of 21 and women over the age of 18 who were considered adults could not be forced into slavery or servitude. But, what it does not do is prohibit the practice in regard to children. There has been a significant amount of speculation as to why this is but it is believed to be so that apprenticeships would still be allowed, although evidence shows other New England states crafted their constitutions to allow apprenticeships while still prohibiting slavery or forced child labor.
More recently, after slavery ended in America, Vermonters engaged in other racist and discriminatory practices such as redlining, or the act of denying mortgage loans to black individuals, preventing the accumulation of generational wealth, and utilizing restrictive covenants, which is language included on the deed of sale for a home that prohibits its sale to persons of any ethnicity other than Caucasian. Housing practices were largely unfair, and equality has been of little importance to lawmakers… that is until recently. Whatever the case, there is a wealth of information dating back to the 1700’s to document the long history of systemic racism in Vermont.
Until the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968, many towns and cities across the country engaged in systemic racism through the use of unfair housing practices. In recent years a couple of the most discriminatory municipalities have taken up measures for reparations to those who were prevented from accumulating generational wealth due to these practices, such as Evanston and Oak Park Illinois, California, and Asheville North Carolina. Burlington, Vermont, is home to a variety of discriminatory practices, including protective covenants, redlining, and zoning practices that prohibited the construction of multi-family housing units or low-income units that many presume blacks are more likely to live in. Vermont has a white population of 89.9%, second only to Maine, which is rather fascinating for a state that was one of the first to outlaw slavery by its own constitution.
Several neighborhoods in South Burlington, Queen City, Mayfair Park, Birchwood and Greensboro, exercised the practice of these protective covenants. And according to the local NBC network affiliate, “a newly created city task force is working to figure out what role Burlington played within the institution of slavery and consider if the city should issue an apology.” The reparations task force is currently researching home deeds throughout the city and state to determine if the prevalence for these types of covenants was widespread throughout Vermont and how they contributed to the harm suffered by black Vermonters through the inability to accumulate generational wealth.
The demographics in Burlington are telling. Burlington’s median household income during the 2019 census reporting period is at $51,394, lower than the state median of $61,973. The data also shows that approximately 8.9% of Burlington residents make less than $10k annually, more than double the state statistics. And only 3.7% of Burlington’s citizens are black. When placed in context? Burlington comprises just 6% of Vermont’s total households. And included in those households is 30% of Vermont’s black household population. That’s correct, 30% of all the black households in Vermont live in a town which comprises a grand total of 6% of the entire state’s population.
Although the covenants have been illegal and unenforceable since they were banned in a 1948 Supreme Court decision, they were still present on many deeds, and there was no simple or easy way to remove them. More recently, Vermonters passed into law HB 551, banning the use of restrictive covenants on deeds, and allowing homeowners to disavow existing covenants with an attachment to their property record. The covenants can still be viewed if a party goes to look for them, but they are no longer considered part of the deed or record of sale for the property. But while restrictive covenants and redlining is no longer commonplace, the zoning practices still in use today “discourage multifamily housing or more dense development… and were often consciously designed to exclude renters and lower income homebuyers, with the full knowledge that Black and other minority households were more likely to fall into those groups.”
As Mia Watson of the Vermont Housing Finance Agency put it so nicely, “Whether intentionally planned or not, we have built many communities that almost exclusively serve white households. As Vermont slowly grows more diverse over time, we run the risk of perpetuating and deepening racial divides in our state if we do not change our zoning practices to allow for a wider range of home types and income levels.”
More on Burlington coming soon!
References
Cutler, Calvin. (2022). Push to Remove Racist Rules Hidden in Old Vermont Housing Policies. Push to remove racist rules hidden in old Vermont housing policies (wcax.com)
Elletson & Petenko. (2020). Burlington’s Income Disparities Have Ripple Effects, Data Shows. Burlington’s income disparities have ripple effects, data shows – VTDigger
Lamden, Courtney. (2022). Ridding Vermont of Restrictive Covenants Proves Complicated. Ridding Vermont of Restrictive Covenants Is Proving Complicated | Politics | Seven Days | Vermont’s Independent Voice (sevendaysvt.com)
Simmons, Tia. (2024). BLACK. The Slavery Reparations Series. BLACK – BLACK is built to help new leaders develop their skills, while providing a meaningful experience for people looking to address root challenges facing them. Building Leadership And Community Knowledge. We Organize For Knowledge and Empowerment. (wordpress.com)
Watson, Mia. (2021). VHFA. Segregation in Vermont Continues Through Restrictive Housing Policies. Segregation in Vermont continues through restrictive housing policies | VHFA.org – Vermont Housing Finance Agency
About the Author:
Tia is an investigative journalist here at BLACK. She holds degrees in Political Science and Applied Economics from SNHU and she is a first-year law student at Purdue Global Law School, pursuing her J.D. She also has a certification in Human Rights from Wassmuth Center for Human Rights in Boise Idaho and Effective Communication Across the Differences from Berkley Judicial Institute in California. She recently interned for the Office of Budget and Entitlement Policy at Cato Institute in Washington, D.C. Tia is a RESULTS 2024 Organizing and Advocacy Fellow and Outreach and Partnerships Coordinator. She lives with her husband and three children in Hurricane, West Virginia.
In her free time, she enjoys contemporary art, fashion, home décor, reading, and family. Tia is passionate about protecting American consumers and corporations and is a strong proponent for open markets, human rights, constitutionally limited government, and equality for all. Her current focus is slavery reparations, entitlement program solvency, and budget appropriations process reform. While Tia is not black, she supports the fight for equality and stands with BLM. She believes that unearned privilege creates a duty to act against racial inequality and injustices.
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