From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Aug. 4, 1986:

So-called racial covenants, deed restrictions that limited land or housing ownership to people of certain races, had been illegal for some time, but the wording still appeared on the deeds of some older Lawrence properties. A 1925 deed for property in Given Court Addition near 23rd and Vermont included the phrase, “said lots or any residence erected thereon shall never be owned or occupied by a Negro or person of Negro descent.” These were referred to as “unenforceable covenants” because they had been declared void by several court cases. Most property owners were not even aware of the race-restrictive wording on the deeds, and those who found they had such a deed (they were rather uncommon in Lawrence) would have to go to court to get the wording change. Since the covenants were void, said city-county planning director Price Banks, the usual response was to “just ignore them.”