Dividing the City uses a newly discovered, parcel-level, record of restrictive covenants (circa 1850-1950) to document the scope, variety, location, timing, dissemination, and impact of racial restrictions in the City of St. Louis. We underscore the important differences, in their use and their impact, between new subdivision restrictions and petition-based restrictive agreements in older neighborhoods. And we establish the importance of these restrictions to both a dramatic increase in residential segregation before 1950 and the maintenance of that segregation—through public and private policies that emulated and adapted these restrictions even after the Supreme Court held them unenforceable—across the ensuing decades.

划分城市使用新发现的地块级限制性契约记录（约1850-1950年）记录了圣路易斯市种族限制的范围，种类，位置，时间，传播和影响。我们强调了新的细分限制与旧社区中基于请愿的限制性协议之间在使用和影响方面的重要差异。并且，我们确立了这些限制对于1950年前急剧增加的居住隔离和通过在随后的几十年中通过公共和私人政策模仿并改编这些限制（即使在最高法院裁定这些限制无法执行之后）而言，保持这种隔离的重要性。