On this edition of our show, we listen back to a discussion from July with Richard Rothstein, who is a research associate of the Economic Policy Institute and a Fellow at the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Widely seen as a leading authority on U.S. housing policy, Rothstein joined us to talk about his then-new book, "The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America." This book reports on a little-known facet of American history that begins in the 1920s, showing how de jure segregation began with explicit racial zoning, as millions of African Americans moved in a great migration from the south to the north. This segregation was further carried out -- nationwide -- by the seriously flawed urban planning of the 1950s, and while the Fair Housing Act of 1968 prohibited future discrimination in this regard, it did nothing to reverse residential patterns that had become deeply embedded. It also did nothing to undo or rectify the long-running economic damage done to non-whites by so many decades of race-based housing discrimination. Please note that Mr. Rothstein will be giving a free address here at TU in regard to this well-researched book; the lecture happens tomorrow night (the 25th) at 7pm and more information is posted here.
"A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America" (Encore Presentation)
