Jesse Clyde "J. C." Nichols (August 23, 1880 - February 16, 1950) was an American urban planner and developer of commercial and residential real estate in Kansas City, Missouri.

Through these organizations, his ideas about real estate and planning helped to shape methods for racist and anti-Semitic restrictive covenants and zoning.

[4] His Country Club District in Kansas City placed many restrictions on the use of property within the subdivision, which Nichols believed made the lots more valuable to potential homeowners.

[4] The Country Club District, Nichols's master-planned community in Kansas City, Missouri, inspired River Oaks in Houston, Texas.

Will Hogg, his brother Mike, and Hugh Potter visited the area and sought the advice of Nichols while they were planning River Oaks.

These included Forest Hill Gardens in Queens, New York; Palos Verdes Estates in Los Angeles County; Roland Park in Baltimore, Maryland; and Shaker Heights in Cleveland, Ohio.

His restrictive covenant model was later adopted by the federal government to help implement similar policies in other regions of the United States.

[5] The deed restrictions in most neighborhoods renew automatically every twenty to twenty-five years unless a majority of the homeowners agree to change them with notarized votes, about which fact publicity is assiduously avoided.

[18] Nichols's real estate policies created a racial and economic divide to split Kansas City in half along Troost Avenue for the indefinite future.

[17] In mass resentment of this legacy, intensified in 2020 by the George Floyd protests, Kansas City removed his name from the historic fountain and road in front of Country Club Plaza.