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The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America

Richard Rothstein

Start date: January 24, 2022

Finish date: February 14, 2022

Why we're reading this: The Color of Law is Franklin Afternoon Book Discussion's February selection! This book club will be held …more
[close] The Color of Law is Franklin Afternoon Book Discussion's February selection! This book club will be held in person at Franklin Avenue Library on Monday, 2/14 at 1:00 PM. Visit our website or call 515-248-4152 for more details, including current COVID-19 guidelines and restrictions.

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Aug 25, 2020 Kyra rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: cousin-book-club

I dedicate my review of this book to my cousin, Moriah Cooper, as I read this book for our long-awaited book club. That's right, Moriah! I FINISHED. Basically 5 months later, BUT I FINISHED.
Okay, here's the thing -- Is this book important and incredibly well-researched? Absolutely. Yes. Do I wish this book had more of a narrative? A strong yes.
This book jumps right in on how the US government participated in de jure segregation--not de facto, de jure--against black Americans. This is an importa I dedicate my review of this book to my cousin, Moriah Cooper, as I read this book for our long-awaited book club. That's right, Moriah! I FINISHED. Basically 5 months later, BUT I FINISHED.
Okay, here's the thing -- Is this book important and incredibly well-researched? Absolutely. Yes. Do I wish this book had more of a narrative? A strong yes.
This book jumps right in on how the US government participated in de jure segregation--not de facto, de jure--against black Americans. This is an important distinction for how we view previous decisions in housing policy and how it shapes our housing policy moving forward. There was a lot in this book that I had absolutely no idea about. This book was incredibly well-researched and encompassed different geographical locations and time periods. Further, I loved that the author proposed actual solutions, rather than just describing a problem.
But overall, I just couldn't really get into this book because of the writing style. It was a lot of facts, listed one after the other. It was really difficult to move forward - it felt like the author kept repeating himself, listing anecdotes that were almost identical to one another. It just isn't an engaging way to move through this account. For example, I thought the account of the Wade and Braden families was particularly compelling. I wish that more narrative of this nature had been included.
I thought the last chapter and the FAQ were by far the best-written parts of the book (and if I was rating just those two things, five stars). But overall, I just think this book could have been written better. I also could have just had high expectations because so many of my friends and professors raved about this book and I was a little disappointed that I didn't enjoy it more. In looking through the other reviews (which I really felt inclined to look through, because this book has an average rating of 4.47 stars, so I figured something must be wrong with me), I've seen that many people had a similar complaint about the repetitiveness/lack of narrative, so this characteristic ruined my enjoyment of the book more so than it did theirs. And to each their own. ...more

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