In this groundbreaking history of the modern American metropolis, Richard
Rothstein, a leading authority on housing policy, explodes the myth that
America's cities came to be racially divided through de facto segregation--that
is, through individual prejudices, income differences, or the actions of private
institutions like banks and real estate agencies. Rather, The Color of Law
incontrovertibly makes clear that it was de jure segregation--the laws and
policy decisions passed by local, state, and federal governments--that actually
promoted the discriminatory patterns that continue to this day.
Through extraordinary revelations and extensive research that Ta-Nehisi Coates
has lauded as brilliant (The Atlantic), Rothstein comes to chronicle nothing
less than an