The Color of Law with Richard Rothstein (recorded April 21, 2021)

In this recorded online event, Richard Rothstein discusses his critically acclaimed book The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, a searing account of how federal, state, and local policy explicitly segregated metropolitan areas nationwide. Rothstein shows that these policies created racially homogenous neighborhoods in patterns that violate the Constitution and require remediation. In exposing institutional racism, he answers an important question—how did we arrive here? —and raises another one—how do we move forward?

The Color of Law was hosted by Hennepin History Museum, Plymouth Congregational Church, Alliance Housing Incorporated, and Align Minneapolis. It was sponsored by the Minneapolis Foundation and the Pohlad Family Foundation.

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About the Speaker

Richard Rothstein is a distinguished fellow of the Economic Policy Institute and a senior fellow (emeritus) at the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. In addition to his most recent book, Rothstein is the author of many other articles and books on race and education, including Class and Schools: Using Social, Economic and Educational Reform to Close the Black-White Achievement Gap and Grading Education: Getting Accountability Right. He also was the national education columnist for the New York Times for several years.