In 1893, Edward H. Bouton, the general manager of a fledgling real estate enterprise in Baltimore, took up an urgent matter with his lawyers. Bouton wanted to know if he could legally keep black people out of Roland Park.

In this feature story, I write about a startling new archive that illuminates one of America’s earliest garden suburbs and how bigotry shaped the landscape of American real estate. Read the full article online here.

I also talk about this article and the history of racial covenants in America on The Marc Steiner Show. Listen to the podcast.