Arnold Weigel

The Minnesota History Theatre just premiered a show (through February 27, one hopes, covid allowing) called "Not for Sale." It was cowritten by local playwright Kim Hines and Barbara Teed, based on Teed's father's story.

I recommend this write-up from the Saturday Star Tribune.

Teed's father, Arnold Weigel, was a realtor in South Saint Paul (which is a separate city from Saint Paul proper) in the mid-20th century. In 1965 "the Minnesota Association of Realtors had named Weigel on of the state's top two Realtors, both for the number of home sales he had made and for community service."

Not long after that, Weigel gave a speech in an adjacent suburb with the title "Human Rights, a Challenge to the Suburbs." In it, he called on community leaders of all the southeastern suburbs to "extend the hand of fellowship to all Americans, regardless of race or creed." He asked them and the public generally to make their cities places of "interracial harmony."

This was 1965, remember. Landmark civil rights legislation was in the works or had already passed in Washington. Martin Luther King, Jr., had already won the Nobel Peace Prize. The North was supposedly not the home of racism, oh no, everyone knew that was in the South.

As coverage of Weigel's talk got coverage on local news and he set about selling big suburban houses to anyone who could afford them, his family got not just angry phone calls but threats to burn the house down and vandalism. 

Just as they had 60 years earlier in Minneapolis, the white people of Minnesota showed what they really thought of people who didn't look like them coming to live nearby.

That's what the play by Hines and Teed is about, based on files Teed had saved and other research. 

I don't know if I'll get a chance to see it or not, but I hope to.