“The most forceful argument ever published on how federal, state, and local governments gave rise to and reinforced neighbourhood segregation” (William Julius Wilson), The Color of Law has become a landmark work, selling nearly 1,000,000 copies. Aware that twenty-first-century segregation continues to promote inequality and exploit political polarisation, Richard Rothstein paired with housing policy expert Leah Rothstein to write Just Action, a book that energises local organisations to win community victories that might finally challenge residential segregation and cascade into a groundswell movement. The co-authors have produced a social blueprint for community leaders, concerned residents and everyday citizens alike, insisting that the private sector take responsibility for redressing the segregation that it played a large part in creating. Whether providing strategies for protecting renters’ rights and security, diminishing the dangerous black-white wealth gap, opening up exclusive white areas to diverse residents or stemming “white flight” from neighbourhoods in transition, Just Action, with trenchant insight, provides the groundwork for remedying America’s profoundly unconstitutional past.
