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Oklahoma City staff outline plan to remove racially restrictive language from historic plats
Summary
Human Rights Commission staff told the council they have identified thousands of historic plats for review and plan a city-led process, estimating 9'12% of plats may contain discriminatory covenants; the city will notify owners, pursue commission approvals and file amended plats with the county.
Emma Winoski, compliance officer for the Oklahoma City Human Rights Commission, told the council the city has begun a multi-step project to identify and amend plats that contain mid-20th-century racially restrictive language now illegal under state and federal law. Winoski said the effort follows a 2024 state law that authorized municipal-initiated plat amendments.
Winoski said staff estimate about 6,600 plats across the city and that roughly 45% of those have been reviewed to date. She said a volunteer event in March reviewed roughly 2,200 plats in two hours and that, "of those," several hundred parcels contained confirmed discriminatory language; the commission's current estimate is that about 9 to 12 percent of total plats may contain such terms.
The project will combine digital and county-archive reviews to identify affected plats, notify property owners by mail, seek approvals from relevant commissions such as historic preservation and planning, and, pending council approval, file the amended plats with the county recorder. Winoski said the commission is partnering with researchers at the University of Oklahoma to map the distribution of affected plats and that the problem is citywide rather than concentrated in a single area.
Council members praised the volunteer engagement and the staff'led effort. One member noted federal underwriting manuals historically recommended racially segregating neighborhoods, underscoring why municipal action is being taken now. Winoski said the process is iterative and will continue as staff complete additional review and outreach.
Next steps described by staff include continuing the review, producing and sharing updated maps showing where problematic language remains, and returning to the council for authorization to record amended plats with the county.
The presentation laid out the administrative path and timetable but did not itself adopt a formal council ordinance; council discussion focused on engagement and technical review steps rather than immediate legislative action.
