The Color of Law

This book is depressing and infuriating, but an important summary of the many ways that government actions at the federal, state, and local level supported or enforced housing segregation throughout the country. This book helped me understand my own neighborhood / city better, and the ways that systematically barring African Americans from the benefits of post-World War II housing and social programs has created injustices that perpetuate to this day.

Well researched, often repetitive, complete look at how the U.S. government has taken part in a system of racism and discrimination that continues to impact black communities today. I really enjoyed this one and think it is a must read. I want to read it again and look more deeply at its claims and potential solutions.

This book may have been very dry and repetitive in the manner of writing but it's also insightful in its subject matter, showing the myriad ways in which the federal, state and local governments used their laws explicitly and also provided cover for private enterprises, to discriminate against Black people when it came to housing, ensuring that they would never have the generational equity which had led to the rise of the white middle class, also leading to the current state of segregated housing across most urban centers in the country. The book covers most regions of the country, across the late 19th century and most of the 20th century, across party lines - and that's what makes this jaw dropping for someone pretty ignorant about this issue like me - how systemic and essentially legal all of this was and how the white supremacist governments used all their power to relegate an entire race of people to be second class citizens.

As the author mentions, it's not easy to reverse the damage caused by generations of this discrimination but it still falls on the current politicians and people to try, and the first step would ideally be to understand and accept this part of history.