The old covenant language in Kansas City deeds

If you buy an older house in this metro, there is a fair chance the title work turns up a clause in the original subdivision restrictions saying the property may not be sold to or occupied by people of a particular race, religion or national origin. Buyers find it and are alarmed, or find it and assume it still means something, or never see it at all because it sits in a recorded plat nobody reads out loud at closing.

It has no legal force. It has not had any since 1948, and it has been affirmatively void by statute for far longer than most people assume. Both Missouri and Kansas now give a property owner a way to record a document saying so against their own title. This page explains what the language is, why it is there, and what you can do about it - because it is a paperwork question with a specific remedy, not a live restriction on anybody's property.

Why it is in so many deeds here

Kansas City is not incidental to this history. It is close to the center of it.

J.C. Nichols, who built the Country Club District and much of what is now Johnson County, held national office in the industry that spread the practice: he chaired the Home Builders and Subdividers Division of the National Association of Real Estate Boards and served as a NAREB director, and his ideas about real estate and planning helped shape the methods used for racist and antisemitic restrictive covenants. One structural feature explains why the language persists in the record rather than lapsing: deed restrictions in most of these neighborhoods renew automatically every twenty to twenty-five years unless a majority of owners agree to change them. Owners in the Country Club District were also required to belong to its homeowners association (source).

It is worth being plain that this was industry practice and not the work of one firm. That is precisely why the language turns up across so many different subdivisions, from different developers, in both states - and why finding it in a deed says nothing whatever about a neighborhood today.

The law that ended it

Shelley v. Kraemer (1948) - a Missouri case

A St. Louis neighborhood adopted a racial covenant in 1911. In 1945 the Shelley family, who were Black, bought a house there without being told it existed. The resulting case reached the Supreme Court, which held on 3 May 1948 that while private parties could not be stopped from writing such agreements, a court enforcing one is state action and therefore barred by the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Shelley v. Kraemer, 334 U.S. 1 (source).

That date is not trivia. Missouri's statute keys its liability provision to it exactly, which is why 3 May 1948 appears in the state code today.

Why the language kept being written anyway

Shelley made the covenants unenforceable; it did not erase them from paper, and it did not make writing them unlawful. The language continued to appear in plats and deeds for another two decades, until the Fair Housing Act of 1968, and it remained in the record long after that simply because revising thousands of instruments one at a time is slow. That inertia is the whole reason this page needs to exist.

What the law says now in each state

Missouri - RSMo 442.403

Missouri does not merely decline to enforce these covenants. The statute directs that any restrictive covenant recital relating to race, color, religion or national origin is "void and unenforceable and shall be ignored, as if the same never existed."

No liability attaches to any owner from the mere existence of such a covenant in a document recorded before 3 May 1948.
Deeds recorded on or after 28 August 2022 may not carry the language. A deed that mistakenly includes it is still a valid transfer - the defect does not cloud your ownership.
An owner may record a certificate of release of prohibited covenants, either before conveying the property or at any point after discovering the covenant.
The owner may prepare and record it without an attorney, provided it substantially conforms to the statutory form. The form calls for the place of record, the date and type of the original instrument, deed or plat book references, grantor and current owner names, the property description, a description of the specific covenant, and the owner's notarized signature.

(source)

The certificate is recorded with the county recorder of deeds - in Jackson County, that is the Recorder of Deeds, where ordinary recording runs $21 for the first page and $3 for each additional page. Confirm the current fee for this specific document type with the office before filing.

Kansas - unlawful for decades, releasable since 1 July 2024

Kansas had already made these covenants unlawful and unenforceable under K.S.A. 44-1016 and 44-1017. What it lacked was a mechanism to clear them from the record. That arrived with House Bill 2562, approved 19 April 2024 and effective 1 July 2024, whose section 14 amends K.S.A. 44-1017a (source).

One accuracy note, since it is easy to misdescribe: HB 2562 is an omnibus act. It also covers financial exploitation of vulnerable adults, contracts for deed, and cease-and-desist authority for the Kansas Real Estate Commission. It is the act that carried the covenant provision, not "the covenant bill."

The act also required homeowner associations to strip discriminatory covenants from their governing documents within 60 days of the effective date, by amending those documents without needing a member vote.

The Johnson County process

Johnson County records the Certificate of Release of Prohibited Covenants at the Register of Deeds, 111 S. Cherry Street, Olathe, Suite 1200. The fee is $21 plus $17 for each additional page, waived where a city or county files on behalf of an inactive association. Two points the county is explicit about:

The release does not alter or redact the original document. The historical record stays intact; the release restates that the covenant is unenforceable.
Individual owners face no deadline and no obligation. Filing is entirely voluntary, because the covenant has no force whether you file or not.

(source)

What to do if it turns up in your title work

Do not treat it as a defect in title. It is not one. It does not restrict who may buy from you, it does not affect marketability, and in Missouri the statute says a deed carrying it in error still conveys the property.
Ask the title company to point to the exact instrument. The language usually lives in the original recorded subdivision restrictions or plat rather than in your own deed, which is why it can surface at closing without anyone having mentioned it during the search.
Decide whether to record a release. Nobody is required to. Some owners want the record to say plainly that the clause is dead; others see no reason to spend the recording fee on a provision that has been void their whole lives. Both are defensible.
If you are in an association, check the governing documents. Kansas associations were required to amend theirs within 60 days of 1 July 2024. If yours still carries the language, that is a live compliance question for the board, separate from anything on your own title.

Questions we get

Is racial covenant language in an old deed still enforceable?

No. The Supreme Court held in Shelley v. Kraemer, 334 U.S. 1, decided 3 May 1948, that judicial enforcement of a racially restrictive covenant is state action barred by the Fourteenth Amendment. Missouri statute now directs that such a recital is void and unenforceable and shall be ignored as if it never existed, and Kansas has made such covenants unlawful and unenforceable under K.S.A. 44-1016 and 44-1017.

How do I remove a racial covenant from my deed in Missouri?

Record a certificate of release of prohibited covenants with your county recorder of deeds under RSMo 442.403. An owner may prepare and record it without an attorney provided it substantially conforms to the statutory form, which requires the place of record, the date and type of the original instrument, deed or plat book references, grantor and current owner names, the property description, a description of the covenant, and a notarized signature.

How do I release a discriminatory covenant in Johnson County, Kansas?

Record a Certificate of Release of Prohibited Covenants at the Register of Deeds, 111 S. Cherry Street, Olathe, Suite 1200. The fee is $21 plus $17 per additional page. The process became available under House Bill 2562, effective 1 July 2024. The release does not alter or redact the original document; it restates that the covenant is unenforceable. Filing is voluntary and there is no deadline for an individual owner.

Does covenant language in the chain of title affect my ability to sell?

No. It is void, so it imposes no condition on a sale and gives no third party any claim. Missouri provides that no liability attaches from the mere existence of such a covenant recorded before 3 May 1948, and that a deed recorded on or after 28 August 2022 which mistakenly contains the language still constitutes a valid transfer of the property.

Do Kansas homeowner associations have to remove this language?

Yes. House Bill 2562 required homeowner associations to remove discriminatory restrictive covenants from their governing documents within 60 days of the act's 1 July 2024 effective date, by amending those documents without requiring member approval. Individual property owners, by contrast, are under no obligation and face no deadline.

Does this affect my ability to sell the house?

No. The covenant is void and cannot be enforced by anyone, so it imposes no condition on a sale and gives no third party a claim. Missouri's statute goes further and provides that no liability attaches merely from the existence of such a covenant recorded before 3 May 1948.

Do I have to remove it?

No. In both states filing is voluntary and there is no deadline for an individual owner. The obligation that does exist falls on Kansas homeowner associations, which had 60 days from 1 July 2024 to amend their governing documents.

Does recording a release erase the original document?

No, and it is designed not to. Johnson County states that the release does not alter or redact the original instrument; it restates that the covenant is unenforceable. The historical record remains available to researchers.

Can I file the release myself?

In Missouri, yes - the statute expressly allows an owner to prepare and record the certificate without an attorney, so long as it substantially conforms to the statutory form. Ask the recorder's office for the form and the current fee before you draft anything.

Does finding this language tell me anything about a neighborhood now?

No. The practice was industry-wide across this metro and much of the country for decades, so the presence of the clause reflects when and by whom a subdivision was platted and nothing else. It is a fact about a document.

If you want a hand reading your title work

Old title documents in this metro are dense and it is genuinely easy to misread what binds you and what does not. If something has turned up and you want it looked at before closing, reach Nataliya at (816) 258-7356 or Nataliya@NataliyaSells.com. Her office is at 3200 NE 83rd St, Kansas City, MO 64119. For anything requiring a legal opinion on your specific title, a real estate attorney is the right call and we will say so.