Richard Rothstein
Richard Rothstein is an American historian and academic. His research focuses on the history of segregation in the United States with regards to education and housing.Career
He is a senior fellow at the Haas Institute at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. Rothstein is also a distinguished fellow of the Economic Policy Institute and a senior fellow, emeritus at the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Previously, he was the national education columnist for The New York Times from 1999 to 2002.
His most recent work is . The book explores Rothstein's contention that racial housing segregation is in fact the result of government policy at all levels--federal, state, and local. Rothstein's argument is in contrast to the prevailing view, held by Supreme Court in the 1973 decision Miliken v. Bradley and a subsequent 2007 decision: that housing segregation is primarily the result of private racism and decisions. The book was positively received; a review in The New York Times said that there was "no better history" of housing segregation, while Rachel Cohen of Slate called The Color of Law "essential."
