The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
CellyBlue's April Reading
At least 2x a month I go into the bookstore and purchase a book to read for the month. My first book for the month of April is The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America book by Richard Rothstein. Yes I know its been out a few years but bear with me. As I am porusing the #BarnesAndNobles, I see these bright colors of reds, yellows and greens. And in big black bold letters I see “THE COLOR OF LAW” and in lower print it read A Forgotten History of how our government segrated America. I became intriged. I heard of drowning entire cities by local and state officials and even redlining. There are even cases of entire families being blown up while they sleep because of where they lived. But, government sanctioned segregating racial zoning not in this country (ok I stop with the sarcasm).
*****YOU CAN’T PULL YOURSELF UP BY YOUR BOOTSTRAPS IF THE LACES HAVE BEEN CUT
The Color Of Law comes in 12 chapters. It dissects the history of racial segregation in the United States. The book documents the history of state sponsored segregation stretching back to the late 1800s and exposes racially discriminatory policies put forward by most presidential administrations in that time, including liberal presidents like Franklin Roosevelt.
Rothstein puts forth the argument that the full force of segregation in America is the byproduct of explicit government policies at the local, state, and federal levels, also known as “de jure segregation — and not happenstance, but by law, or de facto segregation, a personal choice or White Flight”.
My focus really begins with chapter 3, "Racial Zoning," This demonstrates how the government intentionally sought to keep Black Americans in high-poverty neighborhoods and moreover near industrial and environmentally hazardous businesses. The goal was to keep lower-income Blacks from dwelling near middleclass whites and to bar middle-class Blacks from purchasing homes in the same neighborhoods as their white counterparts through concealed zoning practices. Rothstein made appoint to single out the tragic massacre that happen in 1876 in Hamburg, South Carolina prior ro the election of Rutherford B. Hayes. The Town of Hamburg had a Republican Biracial state government and this would not due. It would not due at all.A white paramilitary group called the Red Shirts overthough the town of Hamburg and took control of the city the murdering six black men.
“The white supremacist militia rounded up around two dozen black citizens, some from the militia, and at about 2 a.m, took them to a spot near the South Carolina Railroad and bridge. There, the whites formed what was later called the "Dead Ring" and debated the fate of the black men. The whites picked out four men and, going around the ring, murdered them one at a time; these men were as follows: Allan Attaway, David Phillips, Hampton Stephens, and Albert Myniart. The Sweetwater Sabre Company, led by Ben Tillman, was chosen to execute black state legislator Simon Coker of Barnwell. After being told of his impending execution, Coker asked the unit to give instructions to his wife regarding cotton-ginning and that month's rent. He was then executed mid-prayer”
- Hamburg Massacure or Red Shirt Massacre of 1876-
After the massacre the biracial goverment was disbanned. Blacks were segregated and barred from holding office. They were terrorized, beaten and burned out of their homes. At one point 500 whites camped outside Hamburg, moving to a small town nearby killing more then fifty blacks. The murderer Tillman became a senator for 24 years and was proud of his insurrection. In the end many blacks left Hamburg and it again went to waste, after a major flood in 1911 Hamburg was left unprotected. Disastrous floods in 1927 and following seasons finally forced out the last residents in 1929. Today the town of Hamburg is covered largely by a golf course. Ultimately Tillman and his Red Shirts did succeed. I personally don’t think this was by happenstance, the state of South Carolina and Aiken County let Hamburg fall into declinement, they wanted to wash away the stains of bloodshed and murder.
And there were other towns not just Hamburg. Towns like Helena, Montana. Rothstein states that by 1890 every county in the state of Montana had black settlers living in them. Blacks had established a middle class that supported Black-owned businesses, Black churches, Black newspapers and a Black literary society. A Black police officer patrolled the town's wealthiest (white) neighborhood, but by 1930, Montana had cleared 11 of its 56 counties of any blacks. In Helena the state capital there were 420 at its peak and by 1930 there were 131. By 2010 113 which is less then 1/2 of 1 percent. Why because in 1906 the towns new prosecutor said, “It’s time that the respectable white people in this community rise in their might and asset their rights.” They developed new discriminatory laws, such as a ban on mixed marriages and the establishment of many sundown towns, like ranging of the church bells informing blacks to be out of sundown. What about Glendive, Montana.
In Rothstein states a local newspaper article in 1915 published “Color Line Is Drawn In Glendive” “Considerable amusement was created in police court yesterday… . a certain nomadic ‘gentleman of color.’ “The colored gent, it appears, had blown into town and was engaged in the artistic pursuit of begging, his efforts at this being furthered by the fact that he was minus an arm.” An argument ensued “concerning the fact that no ‘ni$$ers’(sic) were allowed in town.
I would note that during my research today that the median income for a household in the city was $30,943, and the median income for a family was $40,313. Males had a median income of $30,977 versus $20,132 for females. The per capita income for the city was $15,544. About 11.6% of families and 14.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 17.8% of those under age 18 and 10.3% of those age 65 or over. Today in Glendice, Montana there live perthe census 89 African-Americans or Black persons making up 1.81 percent of the population. In the Miles City, Montana, blacks were forced to flee by white mob violence.
Know that Racial Zoning, mob violence and sundown towns are just the tip of the iceberg for the Color Of Law. This book is historical fact. A must read. From White Flight to Local Tactics.
Take the SCOTUS case of 2007. In this case Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, 551 U.S. 701, the court struck down the public school desegregation plans. In his decision, Chief Justice Roberts wrote, “Where [racial imbalance] is a product not of state action but of private choices, it does not have constitutional implications.” Rothstein says Roberts got the decison wrong. Rothstein tells how courts enforced racial covenants on residential property, of how police forces failed to protect African-American buyers in white neighborhoods from violence and how highways were routed through African-American neighborhoods near city centers to get blacks out of the way. So yeah as with everything else Chief Justice Roberts got it exactly wrong.
Rothstein asks, “Is it any wonder [students] come to believe that African-Americans are only segregated because they don’t want to marry or because they prefer to live only among themselves?”
Richard Rothstein is an American academic and author. He is affiliated with the Economic Policy Institute and serves as a Distinguished Fellow there. Additionally, he holds the position of Senior Fellow (emeritus) at the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Richard Rothstein is worth his weight in words. The historical facts are important and profound. I count this book as one of my best buys.
Among Rothstein’s many writngs are:
Grading Education: Getting Accountability Right (2008)
Class and Schools: Using Social, Economic and Educational Reform to Close the Black-White Achievement Gap (2004)
The Way We Were? Myths and Realities of America’s Student Achievement (1998)
Co-author of The Charter School Dust-Up: Examining the Evidence on Enrollment and Achievement (2005)
All Else Equal: Are Public and Private Schools Different? (2003).
History is so valuable and so important. Holding those accountable and never letting us forget how one group subjected another through force, fear and systemic rascism embedded in our laws can’t be hidden or overlooked.
CellyBlue-I Do Know This!
Thank you for explaining that blacks did not choose to segregate themselves nor choose to live “just among themselves” as evidenced by the population facts in The Color of Law. Our local, state, and national policies and laws created the inner cities we have today. Segregation policies are still quietly enforced and entrenched in our communities. This book says the quiet part out loud.
CellyBlue: Thank you so much for sharing. We really appreciate you!