The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
The history that permanently changes how you see every American city
The government records that prove segregation was deliberately built — not accidental
The one book every American needs to read right now
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The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
You Were Told Segregation Was Illegal After 1968. Here's What They Left Out
The Civil Rights Act of 1968 banned housing discrimination. What it couldn't undo — and what most Americans have never been taught — is the half-century of explicit, deliberate, government-enforced segregation that came before it. Segregation that didn't happen in spite of the law. Segregation that was created by the law.
The Color of Law documents it all. The Federal Housing Administration's explicit policy of refusing to insure mortgages in Black neighborhoods. The public housing projects deliberately sited to concentrate Black families away from white communities. The restrictive covenants that government agencies wrote and enforced. The GI Bill that sent millions of white veterans to newly built suburbs — and specifically excluded the Black veterans who served alongside them.
Here's what readers had to say
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6h ago
"I grew up in a segregated neighborhood and always had a sense that it didn't happen by accident. This book gave me the language, the evidence, and the documented history to explain what I always felt but couldn't prove. I've bought more copies of this book than anything else I've ever read. It is that important."
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3h ago
"I'm a high school history teacher and I've been teaching American history for 22 years. This book changed what I teach and how I teach it. I assigned it to my AP students and the conversations we had were the most honest, substantive discussions I've had in two decades in the classroom. It belongs in every school in the country."
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2h ago
"My entire perspective on American history shifted after reading this. Not because it's angry or polemical — it isn't. It's calm, documented, and precise. That's what makes it so powerful. You can't argue with it because it's not arguing — it's showing you the records. I finished it and sat quietly for a long time."
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FAQs
What is The Color of Law about?
What is The Color of Law about?
It documents how federal, state, and local governments explicitly created racially segregated neighborhoods in the United States through specific policies — including redlining, segregated public housing, racially restrictive covenants, exclusionary zoning, and discriminatory implementation of the GI Bill. It is a history of government-created segregation, not private discrimination.
Is this a political book?
Is this a political book?
It is a documented historical account. Rothstein is not writing opinion — he is presenting government records, legal documents, and policy history. Readers across the political spectrum describe it as essential, factual, and impossible to dismiss.
Who should read this?
Who should read this?
Anyone who wants to understand American history, urban development, housing policy, or the roots of racial inequality. It is assigned in law schools, history departments, urban planning programs, and high school classrooms across the country.
One book that changes everything about how you think
For everyone who has ever looked at the divided landscape of American life and wondered why. For everyone who wants to understand the history that most textbooks never taught. For everyone who believes that knowing the truth is the first step toward something better.