I recently worked on a poster for an upcoming event at the Richmond Museum of History for Richard Rothstein’s book “The Color of Law: a forgotten history of how our government segregated America.” I remember hearing Rothstein interviewed on npr in May when his book came out, and discovering that the most awful policies enforcing segregated housing were really cemented in place under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR). As an intern for the California Historical Society a few years ago, I worked on a curriculum guide about the best aspects of FDR’s New Deal, whilst also finding out about Executive Order 9066 which enforced the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II. I could almost hear FDR himself saying again “I’m not a racist but …”
Richard Rothstein’s book shines a bright spotlight on the specific details of the social engineering program that the federal government embarked upon. He explains the details of ‘red-lining’ which were the discriminatory housing policies and their color-coded maps that were used to approve or reject applications for mortgages and insurance by African Americans. The facts are really stark and the policies were not at all hidden. The inequities that these laws formalized still reverberate loudly today. As Rothstein says in his npr interview with Teri Gross “If we can understand this history we might be able to address some of these problems.” The book is a work of dedicated scholarship and full of facts that reveal just how oppressive and tenacious institutionalized racism still is. If you want to hear it from the man himself, save the date of January 20th, 2018 and go along to this free event.
I’m proud to have designed the poster for this FREE event organized by the Richmond Museum of History and Richmond Public Library. The event is on Saturday, January 20th, 2018 from 2–4pm at the City Council Chambers, 440 Civic Center Plaza, Richmond, CA 94804.
For more information contact Catherine Ortiz at Catherine_Ortiz@ci.richmond.ca.us, or Melinda McCrary at melinda@richmondmuseum.org