Luisa Loi reports from the Island County Commissioners board meeting of Tue., Mar. 4, 2025 for the Whidbey News-Times. Read the whole story.
After learning of the existence of racial restrictive covenants in the old records of 955 properties in Island County, Commissioner Melanie Bacon proposed the commissioners issue an apology on behalf of their predecessors who approved them.
The restrictions, of which the University of Washington’s Racial Restrictive Covenants Project website provides photographic proof, have not been legally enforceable since the Fair Housing Act of 1968 but can still be found in the early records of hundreds of properties.
Most of the neighborhoods identified in the study are located in District 1, which Bacon represents. To her, this would in part explain why South Whidbey is so predominantly white.
Many of the documents show the signatures of the commissioners, auditors and other county staff of the time, who, among the various details and requirements, approved the exclusion of non-whites from buying, renting or occupying those properties.
They Said It
“The prosecuting attorneys of those days apparently did not advise their clients of the despicable nature of these covenants, and the superior court judges of those days did not stop them from being enacted,” Bacon said.
While the board applauds the good work their predecessors did, Bacon said it’s important to also acknowledge their wrongs.
“They’re gone now, so this is our shame to contend with,” she said.
According to Bacon, the racial restrictions represent an example of systemic racism, in which non-whites were barred from buying beautiful properties on the islands’ coasts.
While expressing her displeasure with the discriminatory covenants, Commissioner Jill Johnson said she felt unsure about apologizing for the actions of others, and it’s something she needs to think about before making a decision.
Similarly to the racist covenants, she observed, the Growth Management Act could be labelled as systemic racism because it places low-income people in urban areas where they would rent small apartment units, surrounded by less natural beauty and experiencing worse air quality.
“We know that those income levels are highly associated with racial demographics, and we still just do that. The state of Washington does that, Island County does that,” Johnson said.
Income, she said, is often a less blatant way to say “race.” Through the Growth Management Act, the county would still be protecting land that has historically been in the hands of white families.
