THE COLOR OF THE LAW

The Color of the Law is widely heralded as a “masterful” (The Washington Post) and “essential” (Slate) history of the modern American metropolis.

Richard Rothstein’s book offers “the most forceful argument ever published on how federal, state, and local governments gave rise to and reinforced neighborhood segregation” (William Julius Wilson).

Exploding the myth of de facto segregation arising from private prejudice or the unintended consequences of economic forces, Rothstein describes how the American government systematically imposed residential segregation: with undisguised racial zoning; public housing that purposefully segregated previously mixed communities; subsidies for builders to create whites-only suburbs; tax exemptions for institutions that enforced segregation; and support for violent resistance to African Americans in white areas.

A ground-breaking, “virtually indispensable” (Chicago Daily Observer) study that has already transformed our understanding of twentieth-century urban history, Rothstein's book is forcing Americans to face the obligation to remedy their unconstitutional past.

The Color of Law : A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America - Richard Rothstein - 9781631494536