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

Summary

'The Color of Law' by Richard Rothstein uncovers the hidden history of how American governments, at both local and federal levels, deliberately enforced residential racial segregation through laws and policy decisions. Challenging the widely held assumption that segregation was mainly the result of private choices or individual racism, Rothstein meticulously documents a breadth of government actions that entrenched racial divides. With compelling evidence and accessible prose, the book argues that reversing these injustices requires conscious public policy interventions.

Life-Changing Lessons

1. Government policies, not just individual prejudices, played a central, deliberate role in creating and maintaining segregation in America.

2. Acknowledging and understanding the true, systemic causes of segregation is necessary to address racial inequality effectively today.

3. Lasting change and true integration will require intentional policy reforms, not just a reliance on the passage of time or market forces.

Publishing year and rating

The book was published in: 2017

AI Rating (from 0 to 100): 97

Practical Examples

1. Public Housing Segregation

   Rothstein reveals how federal and local governments created explicitly segregated public housing projects starting in the 1930s, often replacing previously integrated neighborhoods with all-white or all-black projects. These decisions were not accidental but purposeful and shaped the racial geography of cities for decades.

2. Redlining by the Federal Government

   The Home Owners’ Loan Corporation and the Federal Housing Administration denied mortgage insurance to Black families, or to anyone seeking to live in predominantly African American neighborhoods, effectively barring Black homeownership and investment and fueling white flight to the suburbs.

3. Restrictive Covenants

   Real estate developers and local governments not only encouraged but enforced racially restrictive covenants that banned African Americans (and often other minorities) from purchasing or renting homes in certain neighborhoods, with courts often upholding these covenants until the mid-20th century.

4. Interstate Highway Construction

   Urban planning decisions were used as tools for racial segregation. Highways were frequently routed through black neighborhoods, destroying them, displacing families, and creating physical barriers that perpetuated separation between black and white communities.

5. Tax Policy and School Funding

   Rothstein demonstrates how local and federal tax policy, as well as school district funding formulas, perpetuated segregation by underfunding schools in minority neighborhoods, upholding a cycle of poverty and limited opportunity.

6. G.I. Bill Discrimination

   Although the G.I. Bill was meant to assist veterans after WWII, Black veterans were largely excluded from its benefits such as low-cost mortgages and college tuition due to discriminatory practices by banks, colleges, and the government.

7. Police Enforcement of Segregation

   Law enforcement was often complicit in upholding segregation, using violence or the threat thereof to enforce unofficial boundaries between black and white neighborhoods, and failing to protect black families moving into formerly all-white communities.