The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America is a 2017 book by Richard Rothstein on the history of racial segregation in the United States. The book documents the history of state sponsored segregation stretching back to the late 1800s and exposes racially discriminatory policies put forward by most presidential administrations in that time, including liberal presidents like Franklin Roosevelt. The author argues that intractable segregation in America is the byproduct of explicit government policies at the local, state, and federal levels, also known as de jure segregation — and not happenstance, or de facto segregation. Among other discussions, the book provides a history of subsidized housing and discusses the phenomenons of white flight, blockbusting, and racial covenants, and their role in housing segregation. Rothstein wrote the book while serving as a research associate for the Economic Policy Institute, where he is now a Distinguished …
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America is a 2017 book by Richard Rothstein on the history of racial segregation in the United States. The book documents the history of state sponsored segregation stretching back to the late 1800s and exposes racially discriminatory policies put forward by most presidential administrations in that time, including liberal presidents like Franklin Roosevelt. The author argues that intractable segregation in America is the byproduct of explicit government policies at the local, state, and federal levels, also known as de jure segregation — and not happenstance, or de facto segregation. Among other discussions, the book provides a history of subsidized housing and discusses the phenomenons of white flight, blockbusting, and racial covenants, and their role in housing segregation. Rothstein wrote the book while serving as a research associate for the Economic Policy Institute, where he is now a Distinguished Fellow.
The book has been reviewed many times and was received with critical acclaim; among other honors, it made the longlist for the 2017 National Book Awards, was placed at number four on Publishers Weekly's Top 10 Best Books of 2017, and won Rothstein the 2018 Hillman Prize for Book Journalism. It went on to become a bestseller during the mid-2020 resurgence of national interest in racial injustice following the George Floyd protests. As of the December 20th, 2020 issue, the book has spent 32 total weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list.
This was a difficult read. Not only for it's dense material (there is over 80 pages of notes), but also for the emotional toll it took on me. I'm not so ignorant to think that segregation was the result of people wanting to be with "their own". But I was definitely shocked at the extent our government developed policies and laws that kept African Americans out of white neighborhoods. This book should be required reading.
Quick forceful arguments and history showing that residential segregation in this country is the direct product of unconstitutional policy at the federal, state, and local level. Focuses on the 20s-50s and on California and the Midwest, to uncomfortably challenge anyone's idea that today's segregation is primarily due to private choices by individuals. From FHA mortgage redlining to public housing authority siting and policy to IRS and regulatory blindness to discriminatory practices and organizations to local zoning and police-condoned violence. And that these institutions continued and refined these practices even as courts began to recognize their unconstitutionally discriminatory effect and intent. The American state's direct role in creating long-lasting segregation and the damages today to black wealth and social mobility due to these policies suggests that state remediation is justified and possible, though the author acknowledges probably not in our current political situation.
