Property records reveal shameful secret

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - The images of racial injustice etched in the national memory recall familiar city names like Selma, Little Rock and Birmingham. Less known for its place on that list is Albuquerque.

Call it Albuquerque's dirty little secret buried in decades-old documents reviewed by KRQE News 13 Investigative Reporter Larry Barker. As the city grew throughout the 1940s and '50s it was very much a segregated city as real estate developers designated entire neighborhoods as whites-only.

"It's an ugly chapter in the history of Albuquerque," academic researcher Stephon Scott said. "Negroes, blacks, Orientals, which are present-day Asians, Native Americans, were prohibited from residing in those residences."

Scott's research showed Albuquerque historically to be as segregated as any city in the Deep South.

"I found about 85 percent of the Albuquerque neighborhoods at that time were racially segregated," he said. Asked if Albuquerque in 1945 was as segregated as Selma, Ala., Scott replied, "Absolutely."

Homeowner deeds spelled out the discrimination in crystal-clear terms: these homes could not be sold, leased or occupied by any minority with exceptions only allowed for servants living in separate quarters.

"The deeds said you cannot sell this house to someone who is not of the Caucasian race," University of New Mexico Law Professor Laura Gomez said. "The common sense of being a real estate agent or being a banker or being a property owner was if you had nonwhites living in your neighborhood your property was less valuable."

Lenton Malry knew the pain of discrimination which lingered beyond the 1950s. In 1962 the Malrys moved to Albuquerque to take jobs as school teachers leading to a first face-to-face meeting with a real estate agent.

"I was really hurt inside when he says, 'You're Negro, and I can't sell you a home,'" Malry said. "He said, 'Well, really, I can't sell you these homes because there are covenants in the area that restrict your race from buying those homes."

Six years later Malry was elected New Mexico's first black representative in the state Legislature.

The U.S. Supreme court made a landmark ruling on racially restrictive covenants in 1948. However, housing discrimination in Albuquerque would continue for another 20 years.

And even though racial covenants were declared null and void decades ago, the News 13 investigation found the offensive restrictions remain on the books today.

The deeds to thousands of Albuquerque homes still exclude blacks, Asians and other ethnic groups in the North Valley, Nob Hill and North Albuquerque Acres. Entire neighborhoods are listed in official county records as "whites only."

They're in all quadrants of the city, from University Avenue to Juan Tabo Boulevard, and Gibson Boulevard to Interstate 40 and beyond.

"To have things like this still on the books, enforceable or no, says something that I think most Albuquerqueans don't want said about us," Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez told News 13.

The deed to state Sen. Cisco McSorley's home near UNM has a whites-only deed restriction, but does he think his neighbors are aware of the racial restrictions.

"Probably not," McSorley said. "The irony about it is, I grew up in a neighborhood just like this here in Albuquerque, and I had no idea."

Restrictive covenants remain permanently on file as part of a homeowner's property records.

"Merely driving down the streets is not going to reveal that," Scott said. "It would take a trip to the County Clerk's office and to actually pull the deed and to read the language that's on the deed."

Once placed on a piece of property, a restriction remains on the deed forever. The only people with the power to remove offensive language from a property deed in New Mexico are neighborhood associations or a Judge.

Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver is the keeper of the records.

"Unfortunately by law I have no authority to affect any type of document in any way," Toulouse Oliver said.

Other states, though, have found simple ways to remove the covenants one property at a time, according to Steve Anaya, executive vice president for the Realtors Association of New Mexico.

"Some states have actually gone in and changed the law so when the property transfers that that restriction comes off," Anaya said. "New Mexico doesn't have such a law."

McSorley says he's hoping a legislative fix will bury forever Albuquerque's injustice.

"We know who we used to be; it's in these covenants," he said. "That's not who we are today, and I think our current laws should reflect who we are today.

"It's important, and we'll just see how the rest of the Legislature feels about it."

McSorley says he will take the issue to Santa Fe when the Legislature convenes on Jan. 19. Finding a way to eliminate the covenants is something Lenton Malry has been waiting 47 years to see.

"We've come a long way since 1962, and thank God we have," Malry said.