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

A powerful and disturbing history of residential segregation in America . . . One of the great strengths of Rothsteins account is the sheer weight of evidence he marshals. . . . While the road forward is far from clear, there is no better history of this troubled journey than The Color of Law.Masterful&The Rothstein book gathers meticulous research showing how governments at all levels long employed racially discriminatory policies to deny blacks the opportunity to live in neighborhoods with jobs, good schools and upward mobility.Essential&Rothstein persuasively debunks many contemporary myths about racial discrimination&.Only when Americans learn a commonand accuratehistory of our nations racial divisions, he contends, will we then be able to consider steps to fulfill our legal and moral obligations. For the rest of us, still trying to work past 40 years of misinformation, there might not be a better place to start than Rothsteins book.Rothsteins work should make everyone, all across the political spectrum, reconsider what it is we allow those in power to do in the name of 'social harmony' and 'progress' with more skepticism&Virtually indispensable& I can only implore anyone interested in understanding the depth of the problem to read this necessary book.Original and insightful&The central premise of [Rothsteins] argument&is that the Supreme Court has failed for decades to understand the extent to which residential racial segregation in our nation is not the result of private decisions by private individuals, but is the direct product of unconstitutional government action. The implications of his analysis are revolutionary.Rothsteins comprehensive and engrossing book reveals just how the U.S. arrived at the systematic racial segregation we find in metropolitan areas today, focusing in particular on the role of government. . . . This compassionate and scholarly diagnosis of past policies and prescription for our current racial maladies shinesl³’