How much do you know about the history of the country you own? An Edmond business owner said he found a shocking passage about his country that just 70 years ago would have banned him from even owning property. Wayne Frost, owner of Frost Auto Accessory and Design, has been fighting a land battle in Edmond for nearly six years with the neighbors behind his auto shop. “I made a lot of concessions to make them happy, and some neighbors still weren’t happy. actually just He didn’t want me here period. And they even suggested I buy property somewhere else,” Frost said. Instead, he bought additional property behind his store and received even more resistance from neighbors who said he couldn’t expand his business into their neighborhood. So he did some digging and found something he couldn’t even imagine. “It was disturbing to me that this record is still on the books and in the state of Oklahoma,” Frost said. A board is a map that divides certain parts into a neighborhood. This one was ratified in 1950 and reads: “No person of any race other than the white race or American Indian shall ever own or use the land in this addition.” Land? I didn’t know because I’d never come across this before,” Frost said. After a landmark 1948 Supreme Court ruling, Shelley v. Kraemer, the case overturned racially restrictive housing covenants. “Most of the housing additions were built before 1950, from about 1910. , those 40 or 50 years. Almost all of them have a clause that tries to restrict non-whites from living here or owning property,” said Derek Lee, curator of collections at the Edmond Historical Museum. So this one or any other is not enforceable. “We had a Ku Klux Klan chapter that was founded here 20 1990s, as well as racially restrictive covenants that were found in residential addition and plat documents,” Lee said. Frost said he is asking the city to remove the language. “You still shouldn’t be buying real estate in Edmond or anywhere in the United States in 2023 and have this wording staring you in the face,” Frost said. KOCO 5 reached out to the city for comment Friday and they said, “While the City neither agrees with nor supports the racially restrictive language in the agreement , has no jurisdiction over the district document, nor legal recourse to force a change in the district document, including that union document. However, the City Council passed a state legislative priority in 2023 to support legislation that would allow discriminatory restrictive covenants to be removed from public land records.” “For that to happen, for that to be removed, it will take people in power willing to do the real thing,” Frost said.
How much do you know about the history of the country you own?
An Edmond business owner said he found a shocking passage about his country that just 70 years ago would have banned him from even owning property.
Wayne Frost, owner of Frost Auto Accessory and Design, has been waging a land battle in Edmond for nearly six years with the neighbors behind his auto shop.
“I made a lot of concessions to make them happy and some of the neighbors still weren’t happy. They really just didn’t want me here. And they even suggested I buy property somewhere else,” Frost said.
Instead, he bought additional property behind his store and faced even more backlash from neighbors who said he couldn’t expand his business into their neighborhood. So he did some digging and found something he couldn’t have imagined.
“It was disturbing to me that this writing is still on the books and in the state of Oklahoma today,” Frost said.
A plat is a map that divides certain parcels in a neighborhood. This one was certified in 1950 and reads: “No person of any race other than white or American Indian shall ever own land or use land in this addition.”
“My initial thought was, could this be enforceable? Could they make me sell my land? I didn’t know because I’d never come across this before,” Frost said.
After the Supreme Court’s landmark 1948 ruling, Shelley v. Kraemer, the case struck down racially restrictive housing covenants.
“Most of the residential additions were built before 1950, from about 1910, those 40 or 50 years. Almost all of them have a clause that tries to restrict non-whites from living here or owning property,” said Derek Lee, curator of collections at the Edmond Historical Museum.
So this or any other is not enforceable.
“We had a chapter of the Ku Klux Klan that was established here in the 1920s, as well as racially restrictive covenants that were in the residential development documents and the plats,” Lee said.
Frost said he asked the city to remove the language.
“You still shouldn’t be buying real estate in Edmond or anywhere in the United States in 2023 and have this text staring you in the face,” Frost said.
KOCO 5 reached out to the city for comment Friday, and they said, “While the City neither agrees with nor supports the racially restrictive language in the agreement, it has no jurisdiction over the county document, nor legal recourse to force changes to the county document, including that contract document. However, The City Council adopted a state legislative priority in 2023 to support legislation allowing discriminatory restrictive covenants to be removed from public land records.”
“For that to happen, for that to be removed, it’s going to take people in power who want to do the right thing,” Frost said.