The Color of Law differs from other studies of urban history because it is polemical and activist at its core. He used a wide range of sources in his research, including numerous court case rulings, town ordinances, restrictive covenants, legislation, and government regulations. Rothstein concluded his study by providing remedies designed to mitigate government directed segregation. He also looked at more inherently economic aspects of residential segregation, including analysis of income suppression, lack of generational wealth, and the disproportionate taxation of African Americans.
His topical study contained insights into many issues familiar to urban history, including the birth of public housing, racial zoning, restrictive covenants, white flight, and violence as a deterrent to desegregation. Rothstein analyzed American history from Reconstruction through the present, but primarily emphasized the racialized New Deal policies that originated during the Great Depression and in the postwar years. He wove economic, political, and social history into a compelling narrative of race in America. Rothstein incorporated several academic disciplines into his study. In a bold argument with reparations at its heart, Rothstein argued that the federal government must take responsibility for the economic and social disparity between white and black Americans. Rothstein also detailed the deliberate nature of these racially discriminating policies and how they violate the American Constitution. He asserted that overt racial policies instituted by government agencies imposed de jure segregation upon African American neighborhoods. Rothstein argued that “African Americans were unconstitutionally denied the means and the right to integration in middle-class neighborhoods, and because this denial was state-sponsored, the nation is obligated to remedy it.”1 Rothstein set out to debunk the myth that residential segregation was de facto in nature and, therefore, solely created by private choice and private institutions.
His study investigated the impact of residential segregation and the role that state entities played in creating and maintaining the nation’s racial status quo.
In The Color of Law, Richard Rothstein uncovered troubling insight into the history of racial discrimination in America. (New York: Liveright Publishing Company, 2017) The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America Richard Rothstein. 1 Richard Rothstein, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America (New York: Liveright Publishing Company, 2017), xiv.
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