Removing Discriminatory Racial Covenants From Your Property

Join me and Delegate Paul Krizek at our upcoming workshop to receive free legal assistance with removing historically discriminatory racial covenants from your property records. In Fairfax County, racial covenants in land deeds were one of the primary tools used to segregate neighborhoods during the 1900s until they were invalidated by the Fair Housing Act in 1968. 

• Hybla Valley Farms: “No part of the said land shall be granted, leased, sold or conveyed to a person or persons of African descent, nor for the use and/or occupancy of a person or persons of African descent; and if any attempt to grant, lease, sell or convey any part of said land to a person or persons of African descent, the deed of said land shall revert to the grantor as though said deed or lease had not been made; and adjoining property owners may eject such person or persons of African descent from said property; or cause them to be so ejected by the proper action of the courts of Virginia."

• Hollindale:  "That said property shall never be used or occupied by, or sold, demised, transferred, conveyed unto or in trust for, leased or rented, or given to negroes or any person or persons of negro blood or extraction, or to any person of the Semitic race, blood or origin, or Jews, Armenians, Hebrews, Persians and Syrians, except that this paragraph shall not be held to exclude partial occupancy of the premises by domestic servants of any owners of the said property."

• Lund Washington Estates: “That not [no] lot That not [no] lot or any interest therein shall be sold, rented, leased or in any manner conveyed to or acquired by any person not of the Caucasian Race and of Christian Faith."or any interest therein shall be sold, rented, leased or in any manner conveyed to or acquired by any person not of the Caucasian Race and of Christian Faith."   

Ongoing efforts are underway to find these covenants and document where they can be found in property deeds in order to educate residents and take steps to remove discriminatory language where it still exists. 

Read more about the history here: New study exposes racial restrictions in historical Fairfax property deeds | FFXnow

In the Mount Vernon Area, land records racial covenants have been identified in over 30 neighborhoods including: 

• Hybla Valley Farms

• Hollindale

• Wellington

• Hollin Hall

• Groveton

• Belle Haven

• Jefferson Manor

• Huntington

Map of neighborhoods with identified racial covenants. Credit: documentingexclusion.org/map

Check if your home likely has a racial covenant using the interactive map at: documentingexclusion.org/map

Join us on at the workshop on October 26 to:

• Learn about the history of racially exclusive covenants in Northern Virginia

• Confirm whether your home and property has racially exclusive covenant language

• Receive help from onsite paralegals to facilitate removal of covenants from your home and property

Event Details:

Removing Racial Covenants Workshop

Saturday, October 26, 2024

1 p.m. – 3 p.m.

WISH Center

7950 Audubon Avenue

Alexandria, VA, 22306

RSVP at scottsurovell.org/Oct26

If you can attend, please sign up at scottsurovell.org/Oct26.

Tropical Storm Debby Impacts Likely Today Through Friday Evening

UPDATED 2:30 PM THURSDAY

• The bulk of the rainfall will be this afternoon through Friday afternoon and should taper off by Friday evening. 

• Tornadoes are possible across much of central and eastern Virginia this afternoon through Friday afternoon.

• Strong wind gusts are possible as convective rain bands move across the state. 

• The combination of saturated grounds and gusty winds could bring down trees.

• Within and around the 34th District, rainfall is forecast to amount to 1.5 to 2 inches, with wind gusts of up to 30 miles per hour.

• Minor to moderate river flooding is expected. 

Through Friday evening, Debby is likely to produce the following threats across Virginia: 

• Flash Flooding

• Minor to Moderate River Flooding

• Tornadoes

• Gusty Winds

• Minor to Moderate Tidal Flooding

UPDATED 2:30PM THURSDAY

Weekly Column: General Assembly’s Ongoing Efforts to Protect Air Quality

The following is my column that will appear in this week's Mt. Vernon Gazette in the week of July 20, 2024.  

General Assembly’s Ongoing Efforts to Protect Air Quality

By Senator Scott Surovell (D-Mount Vernon)

Protecting Virginia’s air quality by reducing greenhouse gases has been a priority of mine since I was first elected to the General Assembly in 2009. This year, both the House and the Senate took steps to address this issue.

However, Governor Youngkin exercised his power to veto some of our actions. Does that mean that Virginia will be stymied in reducing greenhouse gases for the next two years?

No. The General Assembly has considerable power to continue to move policy initiatives. Here’s a description of how that played out in the back-and-forth of the 2024 legislative session.