Formed in 2023, the Great River Covenants Project is a joint collaboration between the College of St. Benedict & St. John’s University and St. Cloud State University. In partnership with Mapping Prejudice, we are working to comprehensively document racial covenants in Central Minnesota and process, transcribe, and disseminate the data to the wider community.

Our project holds up and builds upon the work of Dr. Christopher Lehman at St. Cloud State University and Honors students at the College of St. Benedict & St. John’s University, who located racially restrictive covenants in five neighborhoods across Stearns County. As we expand upon their work, we seek to provide a fuller understanding of our community’s history and the ways in which housing injustice and structural racism have shaped our present.

Our Team

Photo of Brittany Merritt Nash
Brittany Merritt Nash, Co-Director, College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University
Melissa Kalpin Prescott, Co-Director, St. Cloud State University
Photo of Iyekiyapiwin Darlene St. Clair
Iyekiyapiwin Darlene St. Clair, Community Outreach Coordinator, University of Minnesota Twin Cities

Sponsors

This website is generously supported by the Eugene McCarthy Center for Public Policy and Civic Engagement at the College of St. Benedict & St. John’s University