Key insights from
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
Audio available
17 minute read
Published May 2, 2017
What you'll learn
People from across the political continuum assume that residential segregation in the United States is the result of the decisions of private citizens over the decades. Scholar Richard Rothstein argues that far more damaging to the process of racial integration was a century of governmental policies that kept whites and blacks separate and unequal. He argues that the effects of these policies remain, and that these routine violations of African-Americans’ constitutional rights by the government mean that the government is morally and constitutionally obliged to right its wrongs.
Key insights
- • What you'll learn
- 1 Both right and left have assumed segregation continues due to individual decisions, but racist government policies bear far more blame.
- 2 The legacy of the de facto segregation myth continues to haunt the nation.
- 3 Public housing policies in the 20th century gave shape to systemic de jure segregation and inner city black ghettos.
- 4 Jim Crow’s presence was not limited to the South. It spread throughout the country and into the federal government.
- 5 Cities have zoned based on race and have ignored Supreme Court rulings for much of the 20th century.
- 6 FDR’s Home Owners’ Loan Corporation and Federal Housing Administration institutionalized residential segregation at a federal level.
- 7 Remedies are possible but unlikely until more Americans acknowledge the impact of government-created segregation on African American communities.
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