By Richard Rothstein. The Color Of Law: A Forgotten History Of How Our Government Segregated America lays is a groundbreaker laying out how throughout the 20th century, racist policies at the local, state and federal level worsened housing segregation and its attendant ills, educational and economic deprivation. Far from being the de facto segregation that prominent commentators and courts frequently suggest, American segregation is de jure and made up of decades of government-designed and government-sanctioned policies preventing black Americans from receiving benefits for military service, purchasing and renting homes, and much more. Liverlight (2017), English, 368 pages.