Bush to move into formerly "Whites Only" Neighborhood
By scarce Sunday Dec 07, 2008 12:00pm
As George Bush prepares for retirement, he and Laura are moving to the upscale Dallas neighborhood of Preston Hollow, an exclusive area, which in past times was kept even more exclusive by means of a covenant, a sort of a promissory agreement:
In the 1920s and 1930s, covenants that restricted the sale or occupation of real property on the basis of race, ethnicity, or religion were common in the United States, particularly in the South where the primary intent was to keep "white" neighborhoods "white". Such a covenant might prohibit a buyer of property from reselling, leasing or transferring the property "to any colored person or persons or any person or persons of Ethiopean [sic] or Semitic race or the any descendant [of such a race]." These restrictions were invalidated by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Hansberry v. Lee in 1940. Title insurance policies now often contain exclusions preventing coverage of such restrictions.
From CBS11 in Dallas, we learn that "the covenant was enacted in 1956" and was not legally changed until 2001. "Eight years earlier, in 1948, the U.S. Supreme Court made it illegal to enforce such covenants. The court said although private groups could legally make agreements to exclude people of certain races from using property, the states could not enforce them".
Part of the original document reads:
Said property shall be used and occupied by white persons except those shall not prevent occupancy by domestic servants of different race or nationality in the employ of a tenant.
Click here to read the entire original covenant and the amendments which removed the racially restrictive parts of it.
Raw Story also mentions some of Bush's new neighbors:
The neighborhood is home to many famous people, including former presidential candidate Ross Perot and Mark Cuban, the billionaire businessman and Dallas Mavericks owner.
President Bush's new house abuts the 14-acre lair of real-estate investor Gene Phillips, who just had a trout-filled lake installed on his property.
Of course, none of this implies that George Bush is a racist, or anything of that sort. Such restrictions are a throwback to the past, a sad reminder of an earlier era. But the irony of George Bush moving back to Texas to a formerly all-white area just as Barack Obama readies to move into the White House is quite rich indeed.
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There goes the neighborhood.
What's going to happen to the value of the homes there. If there are any thinking people there, they would sell before prices go into the tank.
ron,
In answer to your second sentence, not to worry, there are no thinking people in that neighborhood or even in all of North Dallas. I know, I grew up less than a mile from where the Bushs' new abode lies. Even as a typical knuckle headed 16 year old I knew these people had fucked up values and this was before I even knew what the word values meant.
Status at school was directly correlated with how much money your "Daddy" had. And a most of my friends "Daddys", who lived in that very neighborhood, made their fortunes in the financial speculation and real estate game. I was working on Capitol Hill when the S&L crisis hit and the fact that it centered in Dallas was no surprise. The place abounds in hucksters and sleezbags, Bush & his buds will fit right in.
As far as covenents restricting the presense of Negros to the shacks & kitchens and Hebrews to somewhere else, no surprises there either. The Dallas Country Club where the city bigdeals did their big deals was entirely Judenfrie in the late 60's/early 70's. My highschool had NO black kids until my senior year (1970). It wasn't until a black physician named, I think, Dr. McShane bought a tract of land up near the new LBJ freeway, no doubt using a beard, and built a dozen homes for black elites, that we had any black kids living in the school geographic boundry.
Side note: Mickey Mantle lived in that very neighborhood, too. His dickheaded son, Mickey Jr., managed to total his spanking new Camero within 6 months of getting it. He got another car ASAP, couldn't have the kid walking, what would people say?
From what the Goggle map shows I think this property backs into what was the old Ling mansion property. James Ling of LTV Aerospace fame, had at least 40 acres and a frigging huge house. We used to sneak in and swim in their huge pool which was hidden from the main manse.
All in all good riddance, I can't think of a better place for Bush to drink away his final years.+63
a whites only neighborhood in Africa.
Faster than they can write it.
They need a new covenant to exclude mentally challenged sociopaths but then most of the current occupants probably would have to leave.
Fortunately for Bush, the covenant prohibiting the sale or occupation of real property to "a Jackass" was invalidated as well.
These are exciting times. Imagine that a new president invites dozens of experts in the country to come up with ideas, to participate in work councils, on energy, social justice, transport, health care, science and more. Imagine that he asks for suggestions for the names of the most capable people to bear responsibility on high posts. And imagine that he seriously listens to that, by appointing panels to have those ideas and people tested on their value, by using tens of detailed criteria. And thereby not being led by the well-known old boys network.
Imagine, a new hope for our country.◄
Hes right about Bush not knowing about that covenant. Bush hasn't even read the American constitution. He confuses it with toilet paper!!
"From CBS11 in Dallas, we learn that 'the covenant was enacted in 1956' and was not legally changed until 2001..."
BUT it was changed, right? So perhaps this is a bit of a stretch?
Maybe we can all hope that, shortly after he moves in, he'll be off to The Hague to stand in the dock for war crimes, so that these new digs will be only temporary...
The Hague would be nice.
Until then I hope each and every time he leaves the house, gets coffee, dares venture into public he's greeted is an army of loud protesters waiving clever yet insulting signs.
that everyone who owned property there before 2001 moved out and it's all new people there? Not bloody likely.
You don't really think that the neighborhood suddenly became a model of diversity after 2001, do you?
The legal covenant was most likely replaced by an even stronger social covenant, wherein any resident who sold made damn sure to only sell to the "right" kind of people. These folks travel in the same circle, go to the same clubs, sit on each other's corporate boards and give each other obscene golden parachutes. Letting in blacks just because of a Supreme Court decision ain't very likely in a crowd like that.
Call me cynical, but like Jimhamster @ 18:54, I grew up around folks like that too, and, yes, they really are like that.
I'm willing to bet a large proportion of the homeowners in that neighborhood have been there since before 2001.
Nationwide they got around the Supreme's decision by simply buying out the property in question, so it wouldn't be sold to a party of an objectionable race or ethnicity, or even religion.
Quote: Bush don't like black people.
Damn rappers are so prophetic.
As much as I would love to bash President Bush over this, we must remember that a lot of neighborhoods in the north, as well as the south, had such covenants in place to keep out the "colored" folks. It should also be pointed out that there are towns, not just neighborhoods, in this nation that are prohibiting homes that have multiple non-related persons from living there, all in the name of "family values". (I remember a case from last year in Missouri regarding this).
Maybe we should also bash Mark Cuban and Ross Perot for living in the neighborhood as well and not just President Bush
I thought Mark Cuban lived down the street from Emmitt. I haven't lived in Dallas for a while now but at that time that was the only property that would allow him in.
Highland Park, which is Jewish, rejected Jerry Jones and many other "new money" guys into its hallowed area.
I find it hard to believe that according to the ad here that boosh has an IQ of 125. What's with that number? They also claim palin and Barack Obama have the same one.
Maybe Bush is book smart with absolutely no common sense. You ever read up of the first iteration of the SAT testing program.
There is a term called an "educated fool". I think Malcolm X coined that phrase, but please correct me if I am wrong.
That sounds almost like a Twainism, although I'm not certain.
However, it seems to describe me. I try to learn just enough to really bug people.
You might be a candidate for Heads-on apply directly to the forehead
Whaaa....?
No way!
We all know marketing people are not capable of lying or misrepresenting facts!!!
My solidly middle class grandparents purchased a suburban Maryland home in 1953 that contained the same clause.
NT
I thought W liked "clearin' brush" and living like a
Cowboy You'd Like To Have A Beer With™?
Or, is it that now since he doesn't have to put on the "good ol' boy act, he's going to sell the ranch and go back to being a sleazy Texas oil man who doesn't care about anyone?
Perhaps we should have more oilmen like him. He never found one drop. If they were all like him, maybe we wouldn't be so dependant.
Why should boosh bother to find oil?
Why he could solve the nation's energy problems single-handedly.
With his Christmas stocking contents.
Unfortunately, that also describes my social life
single-handedly.
"Of course, none of this implies that George Bush is a racist, or anything of that sort."
Then why post the story? It isn't newsworthy. It doesn't prove anything about Bush other than he bought a nice house in the same neighborhood as Ross Perot and Mark Cuban. So what?
"Such restrictions are a throwback to the past, a sad reminder of an earlier era. But the irony of George Bush moving back to Texas to a formerly all-white area just as Barack Obama readies to move into the White House is quite rich indeed."
I agree the covenants are a sad reminder of an earlier era, but I think it's a stretch to try to garner something "symbolic" out of this.
your blinders.
I tend to agree. This is where class replaces race as a criteria. Such covenants could remain on the books simply because there was no one interested or could afford a house in the neighborhood to challenge it.
Unless there was someone trying to move there who was refused, courts would simply tell everyone else they have no standing to bring suit.
Back in the dim recesses of 2001?
just asking.
Why do these worthless Bushes dog me wherever I go??? Why the hell does he have to come to Dallas and stink up the place? Bush One was at least tolerable in Houston (barely, he's apparently a saint there). But I've currently wound up in big D, and just cannot bear the idea of that worthless piece of excrement living here. Go live in Iraq or something.
I'm worried about what I might say if I accidentally meet the turd.
But then how often does he shop Walmart?
Sadly I just went there this morning. Reasonably brand new one, too. Got yells at by some black woman too....:)
Your wife?
No. Sadly it is not legal for me to have a spouse here. So I will not know the "joy" of marriage. ;)
I wouldn't say a damn thing but I might find it difficult not to kick him in the shin as I went by.
Imma dude.
I'd be expected to aim for the crotch.
His new address should be a federal prison cell.
I wrote a letter to the Dallas Morning Nudes suggesting a new Texas address for boosh, Huntsville.
Needless to say, they didn't print it...
Ooops
**Of course, none of this implies that George Bush is a racist, or anything of that sort.**
Oh of course not.. then why in the name of everything good and decent do you make a headline to say that. Its something right out of Fox News to do that.
over your head... LOL
should be in a monkey cage at the Bronx zoo.
.."real" neighborhoods probably wouldn't want his type.
makes me think of the covenant of marriage, in which government allows one group to be included, and another to be excluded. Replace "whites only" with "heterosexuals only," and you've got the winning formula for Bigotry for a New Century.
Christians did it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xmu1H7DJO2c&fe...
This type of language was common when land was platted up until the 1960s. If you own a home built before the early 1960s, you should go to the courthouse. The original plat of your own subdivision may contain such language and may have never been ammended.
The Civil Rights Act already has made all of these illegal, but many HOA's have never bothered to change the language in their covenants. This is for a variety of reasons: (1) So much time has passed that people in the subdivision aren't even aware of what language is on file at the courthouse. (2) The HOA removed the language from the documents it actually circulates to its homeowners. (3) The title company removed such language from legal documents presented to new homeowners. The latter is most definitely true for every homeowner in the US.
They are racists, always have been racists, always will be racists. It's ok to have blacks around - in subordinate positions - they can work at the country club, but not be a member.
is it possible to find any place that isn't formerly racist?
barak obama is now living in a formerly racist house....
a poster on here said he purchased property out of country for his great escape in January?!?
...and it wasnt a joke either...
http://www.counterpunch.org/cp10202006.html
Bush may have bought a house in Dallas...in a (formerly) segregated neighborhood...
But he surely won't live there. He probably has property in Dubai. and he could always live with his friends, the Bin Laden family, in Saudi Arabia...but if any lawsuits about torture or war crimes get thrown his way...It'll be zooooom...off to Paraguay.
"Luis D'Elia, Argentina´s undersecretary for Land for Social Habitat
termed it "surprising" that the Bush family is trying to settle a few short miles from the US Mariscal Estigarribia Military Base."
...Paraguay has tough extradition laws.
Covenants like these didn't only appear in the South. James Loewen's book Sundown Towns argues that many of them appeared in the North too. And it is good that this community changed it laws; it's just sad that they didn't do so until 2001. Read Loewen's book for more on the topic.
The Village Idiot finally returns home.
It is time to remove all of the bumper stickers bemoaning the 8 year loss of the Village.
Said property shall be used and occupied by white persons except those shall not prevent occupancy by domestic servants of different race or nationality in the employ of a tenant.
This is like something from Leviticus. Where is the part about stoning?
I'm thinking maybe the house is just a little present for the First Lady to retire in, and Dubya will just mosey off to the Crawford ranch by hisself and try to hide in the uncut brush until the posse rides on by.
blacks aren't welcome.
But I'm certain the Bushes called a few of their KKK friends, just to be safe.
so sayeth Pickles.
SCJOUS...ruled today that only ALBINOS could live there,sorry GW,you'll have to move out.
Then perhaps Bush can catch a big one and re-live one of the proudest moments of his presidency.
I guess crime does pay. I heard that he didn't even buy the home. Someone he helped while he was president bought it for him.
It is a very good thing for him that they except crooks.
and see how many of those original racist owners are still there.
If this segregation was not made illegal until 2001, how many of the residents have been property owners since before then?
Because whoever lived there before 2001 moved in agreeing to and knowing about these covenants.
As for the Bushes, leopards don't change their spots, they are what they always have been.
I know it's not politically correct to admit this sort of thing, but I think that perhaps this case demonstrates the need for these restrictive covenants. I mean, they overturn the covenant, and next thing you know scum like Dubya are moving in.
I hate defending Bush, but this is Karl Rove type crap.
Those covenants exist everywhere even in less hoity toity neighborhoods. Criticize him for moving into a well to do neighborhood, but don't criticize him for an illegal and ancient convenant.
In fact, this isn't the first time lil Bush has lived in that neighborhood. But,come on guys, this is baloney. Whites only was a written law, then an unwritten law for decades in most parts of affluent America, North and South.
Besides that, Preston Hollow is now a majority Jewish neighborhood. Seriously, do some research. Temple Emmanuel, the largest synagogue in Dallas is in that neighborhood, and many of its members live withing walking distance. Please.
Is Bush a racist? Well, he's white, over 50 and from Texas. Yes. Duh. But that part of Dallas is anything but racist.
Next!
Are you FOX News now? Bush is moving into a neighborhood where they DON"T allow covenants, right? You want to pin something that hasn't existed for 7 years there on him now? He belongs in prison but not for this.
Look, there are many "real" reasons to go after Bush, but this ain't one of 'em. This is the type of overplay that makes your site look like a Bizarro Drudge Report from time to time.
Just take comfort in the fact that Bush, by himself, will bring down the property values of the area. Wherever he goes, he'll be a pariah.
In any case, if justice is ever to be served, he'll be spending the rest of his life in the Netherlands.
And if it is may the ghosts within it call on all the tortured souls of people that were killed because of him. And that they haunt George W Bush for all his remaining days on earth.
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