The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America

Richard Rothstein

Liveright Publishing, May 2, 2017 - Social Science - 368 pages

New York Times Bestseller • Notable Book of the Year • Editors' Choice Selection
One of Bill Gates’ “Amazing Books” of the Year
One of Publishers Weekly’s 10 Best Books of the Year
Longlisted for the National Book Award for Nonfiction
An NPR Best Book of the Year
Winner of the Hillman Prize for Nonfiction
Gold Winner • California Book Award (Nonfiction)
Finalist • Los Angeles Times Book Prize (History)
Finalist • Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize

This “powerful and disturbing history” exposes how American governments deliberately imposed racial segregation on metropolitan areas nationwide (New York Times Book Review).

 

Widely heralded as a “masterful” (Washington Post) and “essential” (Slate) history of the modern American metropolis, Richard Rothstein’s The Color of Law 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 neighborhoods. A groundbreaking, “virtually indispensable” study that has already transformed our understanding of twentieth-century urban history (Chicago Daily Observer), The Color of Law forces us to face the obligation to remedy our unconstitutional past.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - suesbooks - LibraryThing

I was glad to read this book, but felt it was for a legal audience rather than ordinary civilians. I was interested in the role of the government in the segregation of America and disgusted by the ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - Narshkite - LibraryThing

Rothstein had me for the first 80% of this book. He effectively explains why segregation in the US was de jure and not de facto (notwithstanding the incorrect words of our esteemed Chief Justice who ...

About the author

Richard Rothstein, the author of The Color of Law and father to co-author Leah Rothstein, has written many books and articles on educational policy and racial inequality. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
• Author: Richard Rothstein
• Publisher: Liveright Publishing, 2017
• ISBN: 1631492861, 9781631492860
• Length: 368 pages
• Subjects: History / United States / 20th Century; Law / Housing & Urban Development; Political Science / Public Policy / City Planning & Urban Development; Social Science / Discrimination