When Richard Rothstein’s book The Color of Law was published in 2017, he had no idea of the wide-ranging impact the book would have. “What I wrote about was known at one time but forgotten,” Rothstein said. His book outlined the unlawful, unconstitutional and shameful way that every level of government as well as banks and real estate developers restricted the ability of African Americans to purchase homes and thereby build household wealth. Government helped whites purchase homes while blacks were excluded. The outcome of discriminatory policies that went back decades had profound consequences that are still felt today. Rothstein’s book was a New York Times bestseller.
Then his daughter, housing expert Leah Rothstein, questioned him about what housing activists and ordinary community residents could do to challenge the status quo of segregation. Their new book, Just Action: How to Challenge Segregation Enacted Under the Color of Law (on sale June 1), begins to answer that question.
