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<br /> Page 20 <br />Everett 2044 Housing Element Appendix <br />Category 2: Sensitfve informatfon <br /> <br />Source: University of Washington, Racial Restrictfve Covenants Project: Snohomish County Restricted Parcel Map (arcgis.com), <br />2023 <br />These covenants had real impacts, including one anecdote in the City’s 2020 Analysis of Impediments <br />to Fair Housing Choice: <br />Afler serving in the Navy during WWII, Carl C. Gipson decided to settle in Everett, since "a black person <br />couldn't get a place in Anacortes, or Mount Vernon, or on the [Whidbey] island" (Gipson interview). At <br />the tfme, there were only five or six black families in Everett. Initfally, Mr. Gipson and his wife, Jodie, lived <br />in “the projects” in Everett. When the Gipsons decided to buy a home in 1954, most realtors would only <br />sell African Americans homes east of the railroad tracks that paralleled Smith Avenue. However, one <br />realtor showed the Gipsons, at night, a home near 19th and Hoyt Avenue, then an all-white <br />neighborhood. Afler purchase funds were arranged to be deposited into the sellers' account, the seller <br />called Mr. Gipson and told him that neighbors were threatening to burn down the house and she <br />couldn't go through with the sale. Mr. Gipson told the seller, "Well, you can do one thing. There can be <br />two families in that house, because we're going to move in" (Gipson interview). The Gipsons moved into <br />the house with their two sons. Carl C. Gipson was the first African American elected to the Everett City <br />Council in 1971 and served on the Council for 24 years. <br />Without the tenacity of Mr. Gipson, his home would have been much like the other homes in the <br />neighborhood at the tfme- off-limits to families of color. <br />Since 1968, housing discriminatfon like Mr. Gipson’s story has been illegal. It has also been much too <br />common. The Fair Housing Act and other civil rights laws against discriminatfon on the basis of race, sex, <br />age, and disability are notoriously hard to enforce. In Washington citfes and suburbs, it was decades <br />before patterns of racial segregatfon began to ease and the most recent (2020) census shows that not