When Jim Howard, a white man,
stole from a Black laundryman
named Albert Grubbs, Grubbs tes -
tified and helped secure Howard’s
conviction for grand larceny . 95 On
appeal, the Chief Justice of the
California Supreme Court, Stephen
J . Field—who would later become
a Justice on the U .S . Supreme Court—overturned the
conviction, declaring that California’s law categor -
ically barred any Black testimony, even if “crime may
go unpunished .” 96
Discriminated against by both the laws and those who
would break it, many Black Californians, like Peter
Lester—who was assaulted and robbed in his store but
unable to testify against the perpetrators—left the state . 97 From San Francisco alone, some 200 Black families, a
substantial portion of the 4,000 total African Americans who had settled in California between 1850 and 1860, 98 left during the 1850s in a mass exodus to British colonies in what is now Canada . 99
“One vote less” (1872)
COURTESY OF RICHMOND WHIG /THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY DIGITAL COLLECTION Admitting that California designed the law to protect white defendants from justice, California’s Supreme Court defended the law as a matter of public policy, warning that allowing any non- white person to testify “would admit them to all the equal rights of citizenship, and we might soon see them at the polls, in the jury box, upon the bench, and in our legislative halls,” a prospect that the Court viewed as an “actual and present danger.”
136
Chapter 4 Political Disenfranchisement
Other Black Californians organized in response to these restrictions . Black citizens formed the Colored Executive Committee and founded their own weekly newspaper,
Mirror of the Times . 100 Drawing from Black activism in other parts of the nation, Black Californians held the
first of four “Colored Citizens’ Conventions” in 1855 at the St . Andrews African Methodist Episcopal Church
in Sacramento . 101 At this convention and later meet - ings, they advocated against slavery, urged repeal of
California’s law barring Black testimony against whites in state courts, and petitioned for the right to vote . 102 After an eight-year campaign, convention delegates
convinced the California Legislature to repeal its ban
on Black testimony in 1863 . 103 As soon as the ban on Black testimony ended, Black Californians spearheaded legal
efforts to protect their rights in court . Black women or - ganized legal efforts to file charges
against streetcar drivers who re -
fused to pick up Black riders or
harassed them on the car . 104
In other cases, Black testimony
proved crucial to preventing Black
Californians from being enslaved .
Thirteen years after California en -
tered the union as a free state, in
1863, an enslaver purchased and
trafficked a 12-year-old Black girl,
Edith, selling her to a farmer in
Sacramento County . 105 But a free
Black man named Daniel Blue in -
tervened on her behalf, filing a case in court . 106 With his testimony and the testimony of other Black citizens, he persuaded the Sacramento probate judge to remove
Edith from the enslaver’s custody . 107
After the repeal of the ban on Black testimony in 1863, 108 and the abolition of slavery in 1865, 109 Black activists in California turned their attention to voting rights .
The California Colored Citizens’ Convention of 1865
petitioned the state legislature for a constitutional
amendment to give African Americans voting rights . 110 But when a Republican State Senator presented the
petition to the state legislature, its members never
discussed it . 111
In the following two years, Black activists drafted anoth - er petition asking the state legislature to grant voting rights to Black men, if approved by a two-thirds vote by the state assembly and the state senate . 112 But by then, the Democrats had taken over the legislature after cam - paigning on anti-Black and anti-Chinese platforms . 113 Black activists could not find a single member of the
state legislature who would agree to present the petition for the state legislature’s consideration . 114
California continued to deny equal rights for its Black citizens. When the United States adopted the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1868,
guaranteeing the equal protection of law to African
Americans, the California Legislature ignored the
Amendment and never ratified it . 115 Similarly, California later refused to ratify the Fifteenth Amendment, which
prohibited states from discriminating against voters on the basis of race . 116
Nevertheless, enough states voted for the Fifteenth
Amendment to make it the law of the country in 1870, and upon its ratification, 117 Black Californians registered to vote in droves . 118 But California officials openly refused to abide by the Fifteenth Amendment . 119 California’s Attorney General Joseph Hamilton instructed county
clerks not to register Black voters until Congress passed legislation commanding them to do so . 120
When Black Californians and their allies protested in
response, in some areas, county clerks caved to public
pressure and eventually permitted Black Californians
to vote . 121 Others resisted more firmly . In southern California, Louis G . Green was the first Black Californian in Los Angeles who tried to register to vote . 122 When the Los Angeles County Clerk refused to allow him to do so, Green filed suit in court . 123 The County Judge—who was the brother-in-law of the County Clerk being sued—up -
held the Clerk’s refusal to register Green . 124
Recognizing the resistance to Black voting in California and other states, Congress enacted the Enforcement Act
of 1870, a federal law imposing penalties for states who violated the Fifteenth Amendment . 125 Only after the pas- sage of this law did California officials submit and allow Black men to register to vote . 126 It would take California California continued to deny equal rights for its Black citizens.
When the United States adopted the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1868, guaranteeing the equal protection of law to African Americans, the California Legislature ignored the Amendment and never ratified it. Similarly, California later refused to ratify the Fifteenth Amendment, which prohibited states from discriminating against voters on the basis of race. 137
Chapter 4 Political Disenfranchisement
nearly another decade to change its constitution to part- ly conform to the Fifteenth Amendment’s requirements
in 1879, 127 and nearly another century to formally ratify the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the U .S .
Constitution in 1959 and 1962, respectively . 128
IV . Devices Used to Suppress Black Political Participation Though African Americans strove to build and maintain
the promise of Black citizenship after Emancipation, the end of Reconstruction left them unprotected against the white supremacists who had previously enslaved them .
After Reconstruction, white Americans in both the
North and South employed a host of devices to reassert
white supremacy and suppress Black political power . As a result, African Americans who had already been voting for many years were barred from voting .
Racial Terror to Suppress Black
Political Power
As Chapter 3 Racial Terror details, white Americans re - sorted to kidnapping, mass murder, and other forms of
racial terror to reassert white supremacy and destroy
Black political power all across the southern states . 129 The federal and Republican-run state governments tried
to suppress this violence, but white local officials and law enforcement across the South often turned a blind
eye or even participated in the violence themselves . 130 Federal and state officials themselves have used their
power to target and terrorize civil rights leaders . 131 Even during Reconstruction, about 10 percent of Black
political officials reported receiving violent threats
and suffered physical assaults . 132 At least 35 Black of - ficials were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan or similar
terrorist organizations . 133 Though the federal govern - ment intervened to stop early violence in Louisiana,
white Americans in both the North and South began to
protest federal military intervention in local affairs . 134 According to one historian, “[t]he spectacle of soldiers ‘marching into the Hall… and expelling members at the
point of bayonet’ aroused more Northern opposition
than any previous federal action in the South . ” 135
President Grant’s cabinet urged the President to “wash
the hands of the Administration entirely of the whole
business,” referring to the repeated white insurrec -
tions in Louisiana, and white political backlash made
Congressional Republicans wary of further military
intervention in the south . 136 When the Republican
Governor of Mississippi, a member of Grant’s own party, requested federal aid against white supremacist insur - rection, President Grant wrote, “[t]he whole public are tired out with these annual autumnal outbreaks in the
South… [and] are ready now to condemn any interfer -
ence on the part of the Government .” 137
For much of American history, then, the federal govern- ment sacrificed the lives and rights of African Americans for political stability while white Americans in the South wrought racial violence to oppress African Americans .
Despite the many threats to their lives, Black activists or- ganized in response to these campaigns of racial terror .
They formed organizations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a
group of Black intellectuals and activists who part -
nered with white liberals to pursue Black civil rights and equality, pursuing legal challenges against many of the devices described throughout this chapter . 138 State gov- ernments sought to sabotage these efforts . Mississippi, for instance, created the Mississippi
State Sovereignty Commission, an
agency created to resist the civil
rights movement and preserve ra -
cial segregation . 139 The Commission
planted clerical workers in the offic-
es of civil rights attorneys, spied on
civil rights organizations, obstruct -
ed Black voter registration, and
encouraged police harassment of
African Americans . 140
The federal government, at times, targeted and terror - ized civil rights leaders as well . During the 1950s and 1960s, for instance, when Dr . Martin Luther King, Jr . urged nonviolent protest to pursue racial justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director J . Edgar Hoover As violence intensified in the South President Grant’s cabinet urged him to “wash the hands of the Administration entirely of the whole business.” For much of America history, the federal government sacrificed the lives and rights of African Americans in exchange for political stability.
138
Chapter 4 Political Disenfranchisement
viewed Dr . King as a communist threat and ordered the
electronic surveillance of Dr . King and his staff . 141 While doing so, the FBI produced reports claiming that one of Dr . King’s advisors was a commu -
nist, suggesting that international
communists might be controlling
Dr . King . 142 Though the FBI’s sur -
veillance uncovered no evidence of
communist influence, it uncovered
evidence of Dr . King’s extramarital
affairs, and used this information
not only to try and discredit Dr .
King as a leader of the civil rights
movement, but also to attempt to convince Dr . King to take his own life . 143 “They are out to break me,” Dr . King confided to a friend, “[t]hey are out to get me, harass me, break my spirit .” 144
The federal government continued to surveil and sab -
otage other Black activists and organizations . In the
1960s and 1970s, the federal government took extensive
measures to surveil the Black Panther Party, using un - dercover agents to infiltrate the group and sow discord, contributing to its collapse . 145 Though public exposure of the FBI’s surveillance activities forced the government to enact several reforms, those reforms weakened over
time, and the FBI has reportedly resumed similar pro -
grams surveilling Black activists, including those in the Black Lives Matter movement . 146
Black Codes and Vagrancy Laws
As discussed later in Chapter 11 An Unjust Legal System, southern states passed a series of laws between 1865
and 1866—which historians refer to collectively as the
“Black Codes”—to criminalize freed African Americans
for engaging in ordinary activity and force them back
into forms of enslaved labor . 147 During Reconstruction, Republicans in Congress managed to remove these
Black Codes with the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and
the Fourteenth Amendment . 148 But after the end of
Reconstruction, former Confederate states began
passing a flurry of laws similar to the post-Civil War
Black Codes, that while racially neutral on their face, added up to slavery-like conditions in practice . 149 Every former Confederate state except Tennessee enacted
vagrancy laws, between 1890 and 1909, which crimi -
nalized “idle” behavior and forced African Americans
back into conditions of enslavement, 150 limiting the formation of Black businesses and spaces that provid -
ed the foundation for Black community and political
consciousness . 151 By criminalizing African Americans for everyday conduct, these laws suppressed Black po -
litical participation in two ways: African Americans
convicted of a crime could not vote or serve on juries, and African Americans were prevented from organiz -
ing to protest these laws, because these laws made such gatherings illegal . 152
Literacy Tests
Because the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States
Constitution declared that a person’s right to vote shall not be denied “on account of race, color, or previous
condition of servitude,” 153 states created many laws de - signed to block Black voting without referring to race . 154 One of these methods was the literacy test: voting reg - istrars or poll workers would test a person’s reading or writing capabilities before permitting them to register or vote . Usually, these tests required a prospective voter to either write down a certain piece of text (such as a part of the Constitution) or to write down answers to written questions . 155 Following Reconstruction, at least 21 states in both the North and South used literacy tests to deny African Americans their voting rights . 156
As described in Chapter 6 on Separate and Unequal
Education, states and local governments deprived
African Americans of educational resources and oppor -
tunities during enslavement and after Emancipation . 157 Consequently, states adopted literacy tests knowing that such barriers would primarily exclude Black voters . 158 At the South Carolina constitutional convention of 1895,
Senator Ben Tillman explained that the literacy test
was intended to take the vote away from “ignorant [B]
lacks .” 159 When Mississippi adopted literacy tests, among other voting restrictions, in its 1890 constitutional con - vention, the president of the convention declared: “Let us tell the truth if it bursts the bottom of the Universe .
We came here to exclude the negro .” 160
Even when many African Americans were well-equipped
to pass ordinary literacy tests, states excluded Black
voters by requiring them to satisfy more complex re -
quirements than those required for white voters; 161
asking subjective questions that gave white officials the discretion to exclude Black voters; 162 or requiring Black voters to answer impossible questions, such as “how
many bubbles are in a bar of soap?” 163 One Georgian
official boasted, “I can keep the President of the United States from registering [to vote], if I want to . God,
When Mississippi adopted literacy tests, among other voting restrictions, in its 1890 constitutional convention, the president of the convention declared: “Let us tell the truth if it bursts the bottom of the Universe. We came here to exclude the negro.” 139
Chapter 4 Political Disenfranchisement
Himself, couldn’t understand that sentence [in the lit - eracy test] . I, myself, am the judge .” 164
African Americans challenged these literacy tests in
court but met with little success . In 1898, the United States Supreme Court upheld Mississippi’s literacy test in a case called Williams v. Mississippi . 165 After an all-white jury convicted Henry Williams, a Black man, of murder,
Williams appealed, arguing that he did not receive a fair trial because Blacks were excluded from the jury . 166 Because the jury list was drawn from the state’s voter
registries, the Court examined whether Mississippi’s lit- eracy tests had illegally blocked African Americans from registering to vote . 167 The Court approved of the literacy tests, holding that the literacy test did not mention race and therefore did not discriminate based on race . 168 The strategy pursued by Mississippi and other states worked:
states could pass racist laws designed to deny Black votes, and so long as the laws did not mention race, those laws would be upheld in court .
With the Supreme Court’s approval, states continued to
use literacy tests to restrict Black voting through the 20th century . 169 It took 100 years after the end of Reconstruction for the federal government to permanently ban liter -
acy tests nationwide through an
amendment to the Voting Rights
Act in 1975 . 170 Despite this federal
prohibition, some states, like North
Carolina, still have unenforceable
literacy tests on the books today . 171
Thus, while states enacted literacy
tests after Reconstruction in the late
1800s, these voting restrictions last -
ed well until the late 20th century,
shaping the lives of Americans who
currently live and serve in public
office . President Joseph Biden, and
at least 80 out of the 100 current
U .S . Senators, were alive when lit -
eracy tests were still legal in the
United States . 172
Property Requirements and Poll Taxes
States also used property requirements and poll taxes
to prevent African Americans from voting . 173 Beginning in early American colonial history, states required in - dividuals to own a certain amount of land or property
before they could vote . 174 After American independence, more states removed or relaxed these laws, and many
new states never adopted them at all . 175 But to prevent free Black men from voting, many states began limiting
voting only to white men . 176 The Fifteenth Amendment forced states to eliminate this express racial discrimina - tion, but with the end of Reconstruction, states in both the North and South reenacted these property restric -
tions or created new ones, imposing poll taxes to require potential voters to make a payment before they could
cast their ballot . 177
While these laws had the effect of excluding all poor
voters—white and Black alike—the law specifically ex -
ploited the fact that African Americans, newly freed
from slavery, often began their free lives without any
wealth, preventing them from affording the costs of the poll tax . Additionally, some states, such as Alabama, re - quired a person to pay poll taxes for prior elections in which they had not voted, a penalty that directly target - ed African Americans, who could not have voted until
after Emancipation . 178
Despite repeated challenges from civil rights activists, poll taxes remained a persistent barrier to the right to vote until 1965 . 179 In 1937 , the U .S . Supreme Court up- held the use of state poll taxes, declaring that poll taxes did not deny any constitutional right because the “[p]
rivilege of voting is… conferred by the state and… the
state may condition suffrage as it deems appropriate .” 180 Recognizing the effects poll taxes had on voting,
Congress attempted to ban poll taxes in some fash -
ion in 1942, 1943, 1945, and 1947 . 181 None of those laws passed the Senate due to southern senators’ use of the
filibuster—a Senate rule requiring a two-thirds majority before debate could end and a vote could be taken on
a bill . 182 The southern senators’ reasoning behind their defense of the poll tax was simple: the poll tax was one of the devices used to suppress Black voters and keep the senators in power .
COURTESY OF ISHIBASHI COLLECTION/CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY The receipt of Kumekichi Ishibashi’s payment of $2 for the State Poll T ax in year 1912. 140
Chapter 4 Political Disenfranchisement
Although the poll tax affected whites more than Blacks, the southern senators believed that repeal of the poll
tax would provide momentum to removing other barri -
ers blocking Black voting in the south . 183 It took decades more of activism and litigation before Congress prohib - ited poll taxes in 1965 184 and the Supreme Court ruled poll taxes to be unconstitutional in 1966 . 185
Challenger Laws and Witness Requirements
To exclude Black voters, states also used “challenger
laws” and laws requiring witnesses to attest to a voter’s qualifications . 186 Challenger laws allow private citizens to contest another person’s qualifications to vote, usu - ally by making a complaint before the local or state
officials charged with registering voters or administer - ing the polls during election day . 187 Many states enacted such laws before the Civil War, some as far back as the American Revolution . 188 Following Reconstruction,
however, states in both the North and South used these
laws to allow white supremacists to challenge, intimi - date, and suppress Black votes . 189
Virginia enacted its first challenger law in 1870, a few months after the end of Reconstruction . 190 The state reenacted the law in 1904, following its 1901 to 1902 con- stitutional convention, 191 which the state held “mainly for the purpose of disenfranchising the Negro voter .” 192 In Florida, lawmakers enacted laws in 1877 requiring
voters challenged at the polls to produce two witness - es “personally known” to at least two polling officials . 193 Because Florida’s polling officials were almost exclu - sively white, few Black citizens could provide witnesses known to them, meaning that Florida’s challenger law
allowed any white citizen to block a Black voter from
casting their ballot . 194 Though many of these challenger and witness laws have been modified through time, they
remain prevalent today: as of 2012, 46 states have laws that permit private citizens to challenge other citizens’ voting eligibility . 195
Grandfather Clauses
Many southern states understood that the onerous vot -
ing requirements they imposed, if applied fairly, could exclude white voters, too . To ensure that these restric - tions primarily excluded Black voters, a half-dozen
states in the South created so-called grandfather claus - es . 196 Grandfather clauses allowed voters to vote, even if they could not pay the poll tax or otherwise would
not have passed a literacy test, as long as they had been entitled to vote prior to 1866 or 1867 , or were descended from someone who had been entitled to vote prior to
1866 or 1867 . 197
In effect, this meant that African
Americans—who had not been eli -
gible to vote prior to 1866 or 1867 in
most of these states—would be the
ones subject to the new voting re -
strictions . The Supreme Court ruled
these grandfather clauses to be dis -
criminatory and unconstitutional
in 1915 . 198 While grandfather claus -
es had a relatively shorter lifespan
than literacy tests or poll taxes, they
presented one of many tools used in combination with
others to prevent African Americans from exercising
their right to vote, revealing how states enacted many of their supposedly race neutral laws with the purposeful
design of disenfranchising Black voters .
Exclusion from State Primary Elections
White Americans also prevented Black voters from par -
ticipating in state party primary elections . 199 Since the late 1890s, political parties in the United States have held primary elections to allow voters to determine
the candidates from their party who would run for of -
fice . 200 In 1910, state legislatures and state Democratic party chapters in the South created the “white prima -
ry,” excluding all Black voters from the state primary
election process . 201
For states dominated by a single political party, de -
termining who would run from that party essentially
determined who would ultimately hold office . Because
Democrats dominated state elections in the South in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the exclusion of Black vot - ers from Democrat state primaries in the South during
this period essentially excluded African Americans from having any say in their elected representatives . 202
The NAACP brought legal challenges against the white
primary and won a case in 1927 when the U .S . Supreme Court held it unconstitutional under the Fourteenth
Virginia enacted its first challenger law in 1870, a few months after the end of Reconstruction. The state reenacted the law in 1904, following its 1901 to 1902 constitutional convention, which the state held “mainly for the purpose of disenfranchising the Negro voter.”
141
Chapter 4 Political Disenfranchisement
Amendment for a state government to pass laws ex -
cluding Black citizens from a state primary election . 203 However, because the Fourteenth Amendment applied
only to state actions, southern Democratic party leaders skirted around the Supreme Court’s decision by exclud-
ing Black voters through the rules of its political party, which was considered a private organization . 204
In 1944, the Supreme Court closed
the loophole and ruled that states
could not allow private political
parties to exclude Blacks from vot -
ing in state primaries . 205 Following
the end of the all-white primary, a
record 35,000 African Americans
voted in the 1948 Democratic pri -
mary in South Carolina . 206
Laws Disqualifying People Convicted of
Felonies from Voting
States throughout the country have long disqualified
people convicted of felonies from voting . Together
with America’s discriminatory criminal justice system,
described in Chapter 11 An Unjust Legal system, states
throughout America have used these laws to prevent
African Americans from voting and continue to do
so today . 207
Laws denying people convicted of felonies their right
to vote have existed since at least the colonial period of American history, finding roots in earlier English,
European, and Roman law . 208 Although early U .S . state constitutions gave their legislatures the power to pass laws disenfranchising people who had committed
crimes, many states—including Alabama, Arkansas,
Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina—only passed such
laws after the Civil War to deny African Americans their newly gained right to vote . 209
Following Reconstruction, state governments sought to
maintain white supremacy by using vagrancy laws, cur -
fews, and other restrictions to target African Americans with criminal laws as a form of social control . 210 Because states targeted African Americans for prosecution, and
because convicted African Americans were stripped of
their ability to vote, states effectively used criminal laws to not only control African Americans, but also to de - prive them of their right to vote .
After the Civil War, in many southern states, the per - centage of nonwhite people imprisoned nearly doubled
between 1850 and 1870 . 211 In Alabama, for example, two percent of the prison population was nonwhite in 1850,
but by 1870, 74 percent of the prison population was
nonwhite, even though the total nonwhite population
increased by only three percent . 212 Ever since the Civil War era, states have imprisoned African Americans at
higher rates than white Americans . 213 One study exam - ining historical data found that when more of the people imprisoned by a state are Black, the state is significantly more likely to enact laws removing their right to vote if they have been convicted of a felony . 214
Many states made clear that they targeted African
Americans with their laws removing the right to vote
from people convicted of felonies . According to the
North Carolina Democratic Party’s Executive Committee
Handbook in 1898, North Carolina’s restriction origi -
nates from the state’s efforts “to rescue the white people of the east from the curse of negro domination . ” 215 The Mississippi constitutional convention in 1890 changed
its disenfranchising provision from one that included
“any crime” to one affecting only certain offenses like burglary or theft, a change that the Mississippi Supreme Court explained as one made “to obstruct” Black voting
by targeting certain crimes the state believed that Black residents committed more frequently . 216
Other southern states expressly tied disenfranchisement to “furtive offenses… peculiar to the Negro's low eco - nomic and social status . ” 217 Some scholars suggest that because denying the vote for those convicted of crimes
was narrower in scope than literacy tests or poll tax - es, and easier to justify than grandfather clauses, states used criminal disenfranchisement laws as “insurance”
if courts decided to strike down other, more blatantly
discriminatory laws . 218
Most of these disenfranchisement laws continue to ex -
ist across the country in some form to this day . Though Because states targeted African Americans for prosecution, and because convicted African Americans were stripped of their ability to vote, states effectively used criminal laws to not only control African Americans, but also to deprive them of their right to vote.
NONWHITE PRISON POPULATION
ALABAMA
2% 1850
187074%
142
Chapter 4 Political Disenfranchisement
the Supreme Court has recognized that “[c]itizenship
is not a [right] that expires upon misbehavior,” 219 the Supreme Court has not extended that same logic to the
right to vote . 220
In 1974, the Supreme Court upheld California’s law dis - enfranchising people convicted of felonies, concluding
that the removal of their voting rights is consistent with the Fourteenth Amendment . 221 Though the Supreme
Court eventually struck down a part of Alabama’s dis -
enfranchisement law a decade later, it only struck down a specific provision—applying to crimes of “moral turpi - tude”—that it found had the specific intent and impact
of preventing Black citizens from voting . 222 In that limit- ed decision, the Court expressly declined to reconsider its decision in Richardson v. Ramirez , which continues to generally permit the disenfranchisement of people con - victed of felonies . 223
Today, people convicted of felonies—a disproportionate
number of whom are Black—represent the largest single
group of Americans disqualified from voting . 224 For ex- ample, although the majority of illegal drug users and
dealers nationwide are white, three-fourths of all peo - ple imprisoned for drug offenses are Black or Latino . 225 Another study found that states with greater Black and
Latino prison populations are more likely to ban for -
merly incarcerated and returning citizens from voting
than states with proportionally fewer nonwhites in the
criminal justice system . 226
As of 2020, approximately 5 .2 million Americans are
barred from voting due to laws that disenfranchise citi - zens convicted of felony offenses . 227 All states but Maine and Vermont have some restriction tied to felony con -
viction, probation, and parole . 228 And while some states restore the right to vote once people have completed
their sentence, these states condition that restoration of rights upon a person paying all fines and fees associated with their sentence, an economic burden that scholars
and voting rights advocates have described as a modern
day poll tax . 229 In a country that professes a commitment to freedom, the country’s rates of mass incarceration
and the corresponding increase in disenfranchisement
reflect a conflict between its democratic ideals and its actual practice .
Gerrymandering
States also manipulated the shape of voting districts,
through a process called gerrymandering, to dilute the
voting power of African Americans . 230 Generally, states divide their regions into districts for the election of cer - tain local, state, and federal representatives . 231 States can redraw those areas from year to year, 232 and government officials have used this process to substantially dilute and weaken the political power of African Americans . 233 Ordinarily, states draw electoral districts by drawing
generally oval or square-shaped districts of neighboring communities with borders based on geographic barri -
ers, like rivers and highways . 234 However, politicians began manipulating this process by drawing electoral
districts in more unnatural shapes to include more vot - ers from a certain race or political party to ensure that group’s victory in an election . 235
This process, known as “gerrymandering,” is named af -
ter Elbridge Gerry, an American vice-president who, as
Massachusetts Governor in 1812 redrew voting districts
in a way that caused the Boston-area district to resemble a salamander . 236 Or, as one local newspaper dubbed it, a Gerry-mander . 237 Gerrymandering has existed since this nation’s infancy, and politicians have used it near - ly as long to deny Black communities representation
in government . After the end of Reconstruction, white
government officials drew gerrymandered districts to
purge Black politicians from state legislatures all across the south . 238
For example, although African Americans made up a
majority of South Carolina’s population in the 1870s
and 1880s, white government officials redrew the state’s electoral map to pack nearly all of the state’s Black neigh- borhoods into one of the state’s seven districts that had The term “gerrymander” stems from this Gilbert Stuart cartoon of a Massachusetts electoral district twisted beyond all reason. Stuart thought the shape of the district resembled a salamander, but his friend who showed him the original map called it a “Gerry-mander” after Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry, who approved rearranging district lines for political advantage. (1812)
COURTESY OF BETTMANN VIA GETTY IMAGES
143
Chapter 4 Political Disenfranchisement
a Black majority, and it included nearly all of the state’s Black neighborhoods in the awkward shape of a snake . 239 Drawing the map this way had the effect of ensuring
that only one of the state’s seven legislators were Black, despite African Americans making up more than 60 per-
cent of the state’s total population . White government officials drew similarly gerrymandered congressional
districts across the south, including in North Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi . 240 The Mississippi govern - ment drew the Black electoral district in the shape of
what one newspaper called a “shoestring .” 241
Gerrymandering continued in the 20th century . After
World War II, a thriving Black community began orga -
nizing politically in Tuskegee, Alabama . 242 But white segregationists responded by proposing a bill to redraw the boundary lines of Tuskegee to exclude all neighbor - hoods with Black residents and exclude Black voters
from having any input into the city’s elections . 243 Black residents fought back, bringing a case that reached the Supreme Court in 1960, where the Court struck down
the racially gerrymandered map as a violation of the
Fifteenth Amendment 244 A few years later, Congress
enacted the Voting Rights Act in 1965, which prohib -
its states from diluting the voting strength of African Americans, including through redistricting plans that
dilute the voting strength of Black communities . 245
Despite prohibitions by both Congress and the Supreme
Court, states continued to try and find ways to gerry - mander state maps to limit Black representation . In the 1980s, Georgia State Representative Joe Mack Wilson de - clared, “I don’t want to draw nigger districts .” 246 A little more than a decade later, the Supreme Court would
strike down North Carolina’s efforts to gerrymander on
the basis of race, stating it was “unsettling how closely the North Carolina plan resembles the most egregious
racial gerrymanders of the past . ” 247 Meanwhile, states continue to engage in two other forms of legally sanc - tioned racial gerrymandering: partisan gerrymandering
and prison gerrymandering .
Political, or partisan, gerrymandering refers to the pro - cess of drawing districts to benefit one political party over another . 248 As of September 2021, 38 states allow partisan actors—state legislatures or their appointees—to redraw their districts . 249 While those who engage in par- tisan gerrymandering claim not to directly target Black voters, the fact that most Black voters register to vote as Democrats, today, means that partisan gerrymandering
often affects Black representation as well .
Though African Americans had historically supported
the Republican party through post-Reconstruction due
to the party’s role in Emancipation and Reconstruction, the Republican party’s apathy and mistreatment toward
African Americans during the Hoover Administration
opened the door to their entry into the Democratic
party during the New Deal, as northern Democrats like
President Franklin Roosevelt promised economic aid
amidst the Great Depression . 250
Black support for the Democratic party then surged
in the 1960s, when Democratic President Lyndon B .
Johnson ushered in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 . 251 President Johnson’s embrace of civil rights legislation caused many of the southern white supremacists in the Democratic party to defect
to the Republican party, cementing Black support for
Democrats to this day . 252 From 1994 to 2019, over 80 per- cent of Black registered voters have leaned toward or
identified as Democrats . 253
Because most Black voters today register to vote as
Democrats, partisan gerrymandering harms Black rep -
resentation . In the last decade, more than two dozen
Black officials have had their districts redrawn in ways that could cost them their seats, leading the former
chair of the Congressional Black
Caucus to declare partisan gerry -
mandering a “five-alarm fire” for
Black representation . 254
Moreover, unlike earlier forms of
racial gerrymandering, neither
Congress nor the U .S . Supreme
Court have prohibited partisan
gerrymandering . 255 As scholars and advocates have
observed, the Supreme Court’s refusal to strike down
political gerrymandering permits legislators to get away with racial gerrymandering in places where race and
party are highly correlated, simply by claiming that they made their redistricting decisions for partisan reasons, rather than racial ones . 256
Prison gerrymandering refers to the practice of count - ing incarcerated people as part of the population in
the region imprisoning them, rather than the location
of their actual community . 257 Because the government allocates greater numbers of political representatives
Gerrymandering has existed since this nation’s infancy, and politicians have used it nearly as long to deny Black communities representation in government.
144
Chapter 4 Political Disenfranchisement
and resources to places with greater populations, prison gerrymandering benefits districts that engage in mass
incarceration, skewing resources and representation
to areas with prisons at the expense of the commu -
nities to which those imprisoned
people belong . 258
This process particularly affects
African Americans, who are dispro -
portionately imprisoned . In 2019,
African Americans made up about
33 percent of the United States’s
imprisoned population, 259 despite
representing about 14 percent of
the total population . 260 Given the
effects of prison gerrymandering,
advocates describe it as akin to
or worse than the Constitution’s Three-Fifths Clause,
which counted enslaved people in the Census for the
purpose of allowing states to amass more pro-slavery
representatives, despite the fact that enslaved people
were not allowed to vote and had no basic legal rights . 261 The Myth of Voter Fraud and Voter ID Laws
Claims of voter fraud have also been used to justify laws that suppress Black voting—most prominently, vot -
er identification (ID) laws . While voter fraud has long been invoked throughout American history to justify
restrictions on voting, such claims have made a recent
resurgence, including in the 2020 election, despite the lack of any evidence to support allegations of widespread fraud . 262 In recent years, states have used this claim to enact a number of strict ID laws that disproportionately impact Black and other nonwhite voters, hindering their ability to vote . 263
States and politicians have invoked the specter of voter fraud since at least the late 1800s to justify the various rules they imposed disenfranchising Black and other
nonwhite communities . 264 The Ku Klux Klan and oth -
er white supremacists claimed voter fraud to justify the violence they inflicted upon African Americans . One
southern historian claimed in 1901 that “the white man
of the lately dominant class in the South… saw his former slaves repeating at elections,” and quoted with favor a white supremacist leader and his announcement that he
and his militants had violently suppressed Black voters such that “[f]ew negroes voted that day; none twice . ” 265 Thus, white supremacists have long used accusations of
voter fraud as an excuse to justify the suppression of
Black political participation . 266
More recently, the idea of voter fraud and voter identifica- tion laws became popular following the 2000 election . 267 The U .S . Attorney General at the time, John Ashcroft, pushed the U .S . Department of Justice to prioritize vot- er fraud as an issue, 268 even though the U .S . Department of Justice itself found only a 0 .00000132 percent rate of voter fraud . 269
Congress enacted the Help America Vote Act in 2002,
which required voter identification to register to vote and deferred to states’ requirements for voter identi - fication . 270 Many civil rights organizations opposed the bill for its discriminatory impact, arguing that the re - quirement would mirror a poll tax . 271 In 2005, Georgia and Indiana became the first states to enact photo iden - tification voting laws, opening the floodgates for similar laws throughout the country . 272 In 2000, only 11 states required all voters to show some form of identification; this increased to 18 states in 2008, 273 and, as of 2021, 35 states have laws requesting or requiring voters to show identification at the polls . 274
Although voter identification laws may appear race neu- tral, they disproportionately burden Black voters due to disparities in both access and enforcement . According to one nationwide study, 20 percent of African Americans
did not possess a valid photo ID, compared to seven per- cent of whites . 275 Due to segregation and unequal access, many elderly Black voters were not born in hospitals,
resulting in many never being issued a birth certificate— and this fact, in turn, limits their ability to obtain other forms of photo identification . 276
Additionally, states disproportionately enforce voter ID laws against Black voters . National studies have found that 70 percent of all Black voters were asked to show
photo identification at the polls during the 2008 elec - tion, as opposed to only 51 percent of white voters . 277 These disparities in enforcement forced Black voters to file provisional ballots at four times the rate of white vot- ers . 278 Provisional ballots, in turn, are more likely to go Because most Black voters today register to vote as Democrats, partisan gerrymandering harms Black representation. In the last decade, more than two dozen Black officials have had their districts redrawn in ways that could cost them their seats, leading the former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus to declare partisan gerrymandering a “five-alarm fire” for Black representation. 145
Chapter 4 Political Disenfranchisement
uncounted . 279 In 2016, nearly 700,000, or 28 .5 percent of all provisional ballots went uncounted; in 2018, nearly 790,000, or 42 .6 percent of all provisional ballots were not counted . 280
Additionally, citizens with ready access to voter iden - tification might underestimate the burdens that
voter ID requirements impose . But as the American Civil Liberties Union has calculated, for those who need to
procure a voter ID, the combined cost of time, travel,
and documentation ranges from $75 to $175, 281 a steep cost to consider when poll taxes “of as little as $1 .50 have been deemed an unconstitutional burden on the right to
vote .” 282 Even obtaining “free” identification cards may require a person to not only purchase a birth certifi - cate, 283 but to travel to a DMV, which in some regions could be as far as 250 miles away . 284
In many cases, states intentionally use voter ID laws to discriminate against Black voters and people with low - er incomes, perpetuating America’s legacy of creating
barriers to Black voting . 285 For example, when crafting North Carolina’s voter identification laws, one state
representative expressly asked a university official to provide information “about the number of Student ID
cards that are created and the [percent] of those who are African American,” and a federal appeals court charac - terized these restrictions as targeting Black voters with “almost surgical precision .” 286
As one scholar points out, it is no coincidence that the states with the most rigid voter identification laws also happen to be states with substantial Black populations
and a history of post-Reconstruction-style discrimi -
nation at the polls . 287 Multiple Republican strategists have admitted that voter ID laws have nothing to do
with voter fraud, and are instead part of a strategy of ensuring that Democrats cannot vote . 288 Because Black voters identify overwhelmingly with the Democratic
Party, 289 political strategists openly seeking to disenfran - chise Democrats will necessarily target Black voters . 290 Ultimately, scholars have found that strict voter ID laws substantially decrease voting turnout for Black and
Latino voters, doubling the voting gap between white
and Black voters . 291
Exclusion from Juries
In addition to barring African Americans from voting,
post-Reconstruction states in both the North and South
also excluded African Americans from serving on juries .
The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution
guarantees criminal trials by an “impartial jury .” 292 Juries serve the essential role of balancing government power
by giving citizens the authority to determine a just out - come in a case of law . 293
In the 1800s, many states, such as Tennessee and West
Virginia, expressly allowed only white men to serve on
juries . 294 While many states in the north did not have laws excluding Black jurors, one historian observed that “[i]n most of the North, custom and prejudice… com -
bined to exclude Negroes from jury service .” 295 During Reconstruction, Congress partially undid these restric - tions with the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which prohibited states from expressly discriminating based on race in
the selection of juries in state court . 296
However, the Act did not address the many other
methods that states used to exclude Black jurors . 297 For example, states ordinarily required a jury decision to be unanimous to determine whether someone is guilty or
innocent of a crime . 298 But this meant that the presence of a single Black juror could prevent a white jury from convicting a Black defendant . To get around this, states like Louisiana and Oregon passed laws allowing a jury
to convict a defendant if only 10 of the 12 jurors voted to convict . 299
As the U .S . Supreme Court observed in Ramos v. Louisiana (2020), states like Louisiana and Oregon removed jury
unanimity requirements after Reconstruction “to en -
sure that African-American juror service would be
meaningless,” since one or two Black jurors could not
outvote a white majority . 300 In many states, only regis - tered voters can serve on juries, so because these states denied African Americans the ability to register to vote, they denied them access to the jury box as well . 301 Finally, many states excluded Black jurors through various
state rules that allowed judges, court officials, and local 2008 ELECTION
REQUEST FOR PHOTO IDENTIFICATION BY RACE
70% Black
White51%
VOTER IDENTIFICATION BY RACE
Percent of voters who do not have a valid photo ID
20% Black
White7%
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Chapter 4 Political Disenfranchisement
prosecutors to prevent a person from serving on a jury
without giving a reason . 302 As discussed in Chapter 11 An Unjust Legal system, these methods produced deep dis -
parities in the number of African Americans convicted
of crimes, including wrongful convictions . 303
California
Though California amended its constitution in 1879 to
allow nonwhite men to vote, the state adopted many
laws similar to those adopted by northern and south -
ern states to suppress the political participation of
African Americans . 304 California added a poll tax into its constitution in 1879, requiring payment of an aver - age half-day’s wage before someone could vote . 305 The poll tax continued until repealed in 1914 . 306 In 1894, California added a literacy test for voting to its con - stitution to prevent Chinese residents from voting . 307 Unsurprisingly, anti-Chinese and anti-Black racism in
California frequently intertwined . The California state Democratic party, for instance, pledged in 1867 to es - tablish “no Negro or Chinese suffrage,” 308 and its racist pledge enabled Democrats to sweep state elections
that year . 309
In the years after World War II, the Black population in California rose dramatically . 310 With a growing presence in the state, Black communities in California continued pushing for greater political representation . But they faced resistance and retaliation along the way . California, like the federal government, frequently treated Black ac- tivism as a threat . 311 In 1966, when civil rights protesters used the slogan of “Black power” to advocate for ra -
cial equality, the Republican Candidate for Lieutenant
Governor, Robert Finch, declared
that “it’s wrong, if… any minority,
including the Negro people, think
they can blackmail or blackjack their
way into acceptance into our society,
they’re just dead wrong, and the
American people will not tolerate
this kind of thing .” 312
That same year, Huey P . Newton
and Bobby Seale formed the Black
Panther Party in Oakland, California,
seeking Black economic empowerment and the end of
police brutality . 313 To pursue these goals, the Panthers adopted a number of community service programs, in -
cluding health care clinics, a free breakfast program for school children, 314 and police observation patrols . 315 As with Dr . Martin Luther King, Jr ., the federal gov - ernment and California viewed the Black Panthers as a
threat . 316 Vice President Spiro Agnew labeled the Black Panthers an “anarchistic group of criminals . ” 317 Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Hoover declared that
the Black Panther Party “without question, represents
the greatest threat to the internal security of the
country .” 318 Through its counterintelligence program (COINTELPRO), the FBI surveilled and sabotaged the
Black Panthers . 319 The FBI sent anonymous, inflamma - tory letters to restaurants, grocery stores, and churches to dissuade them from providing food or facilities for
the free breakfast program . 320
To suppress the Black Panthers’ newsletter activities, the FBI ordered the Internal Revenue Service to audit the
organization and any income they received from distrib- uting newsletters . 321 Further, the FBI infiltrated the group with undercover agents and spread misinformation, para- noia, conflict, and distrust within the party . 322 Californian law enforcement also repeatedly arrested Black Panther
members on harassment and public disorder charges, dis- rupting the organization and sapping resources away from its community service initiatives . 323 These efforts contrib- uted to the organization’s collapse in 1982 . 324
Like many states in the North and South, California also stripped individuals of their right to vote when they
were convicted of a felony, embedding such a provision
in its constitution since 1849 . 325 It took 125 years before California eventually changed this wholesale denial of
voting rights in 1974, amending its constitution to allow individuals convicted of felonies to vote if they had com- pleted their sentence and parole . 326 In 2016, the state legislature restored voting rights to people convicted of a felony offense housed in jail, but not in prison . 327 Still, in 2020, approximately 243,000 Californians were barred from voting due to felony convictions . 328 Of that number, 50,000 (or about 20 percent) are Black . 329
Only recently, in 2020, did California voters approve
Proposition 17 , which amended the state’s constitu -
tion to restore the right to vote to all individuals who have completed their prison term, even if they are still on parole . 330
Californian law enforcement also repeatedly arrested Black Panther members on harassment and public disorder charges, disrupting the organization and sapping resources away from its community service initiatives. These efforts contributed to the organization’s collapse in 1982.
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Chapter 4 Political Disenfranchisement
V . Voting Rights Legislation
As Black Activists Fought for Civil Rights,
White Americans Reacted with Violence
After the end of Reconstruction, African Americans,
facing increased threats to their liberty, organized and mobilized to assert their equal rights . Groups like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP) used protest and litigation to advance
the civil rights of African Americans and secure the
rights guaranteed by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth
Amendments . 331 Much of the NAACP’s legal work fo -
cused on defending African Americans from wrongful
convictions and bringing lawsuits to hold white perpe - trators of racial terror accountable for their crimes . 332 The NAACP also brought legal challenges to end many of
the devices states used to suppress Black political power, such as the all-white primary . 333
In these efforts, NAACP lawyers played a critical role in using litigation to end racial segregation, most famously through Brown v. Board of Education , where the NAACP
convinced the U .S . Supreme Court to strike down racial segregation in public schools as unconstitutional . 334 In addition to its litigation, the organization lobbied the federal government to enact civil rights legislation, in - cluding anti-lynching laws, voting rights laws, and other civil rights laws that would ensure the equal protection of African Americans . 335
Black women, too, played a critical role in early Black activism . During the 1896 election in North Carolina,
for instance, Sarah Dudley Pettey canvassed the Black
sections of Raleigh to urge Black women to persuade
their husbands, brothers, and sons to vote . 336 In 1898, the “Organization of Colored Ladies” in Wilmington de - clared that for “Every Negro who refuses to register his name… that he may vote, we shall make it our business
to deal with him in a way that will not be pleasant . He shall be branded a white-livered coward who would sell
his liberty .” 337
When the United States ratified the Nineteenth
Amendment in 1920, Black women registered in large
numbers to vote . 338 For instance, in Kent County,
Delaware, one local paper reported “unusually large”
numbers of Black women who showed up to vote,
though officials would prevent many of them—and many
others across the country—from voting . 339
World War II contributed to a surge in Black civil
rights activism . 340 The service and sacrifice of African Americans—both abroad in the military and at home
in factories and fields—underscored the moral impera -
tive for equal treatment, especially given America’s war against the Nazism and white supremacy abroad . 341
With renewed energy, Black organizations pushed to
secure voting rights, continuing efforts to organize, ed - ucate, and register Black voters, despite the threats of violence and the other barriers that states had created after Reconstruction . 342 Black women like Ella Baker led and directed civil rights campaigns and voter registra - tion drives for some of the nation’s largest civil rights groups, including the NAACP, Southern Leadership
Conference, and Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee . 343 In addition, interracial labor unions in the South played a part in registering Black voters . 344 In 1947 , Local 22 of the Food and Tobacco Workers in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina helped register 3,000
Black residents in the city, helping elect the first Black alderman to the city’s board since Reconstruction . 345 But Black veterans demanding equal treatment returned
home to fierce resistance . 346 In Decatur, Mississippi, a white senator, Senator Theodore Bilbo, warned Black
residents to stay away from the polls for the Democratic primary in 1946, calling for “every red-blooded white
man to use any means to keep the niggers away from
the polls .” 347
A civil rights marcher suffering from exposure to tear gas, holds an unconscious Amelia Boynton Robinson after mounted police officers attacked marchers in Selma, Alabama as they were beginning a 50 mile march to Montgomery to protest race discrimination in voter registration.(1965)
COURTESY OF BETTMANN VIA GETTY IMAGES
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Chapter 4 Political Disenfranchisement
A mob of white people waving pistols turned five re -
turning World War II veterans away from voting during
that primary . 348 A group of civil rights organizations complained to the U .S . Senate about Senator Bilbo’s
intimidation tactics, prompting a Senate committee
to hold four days of hearings in Jackson, Mississippi . 349 Two hundred African Americans, most of them veterans,
packed the federal courtroom in Jackson to share their
experience of violence and voter suppression . 350
African Americans faced similar
threats in other places . In March
1948, the Ku Klux Klan parad -
ed around Wrightsville, Georgia,
warning that “blood would flow” if
Blacks tried to vote in the forthcom-
ing election . 351 Seven months later,
two whites threatened Isaac Nixon,
a Black veteran, telling him not to
vote . 352 He refused to heed their
warning, cast his ballot shortly af -
ter sunrise, and by nightfall he had been murdered . 353 Though Nixon’s murderers later stood trial, an all-white jury acquitted them . 354
In Florida, on the Christmas Eve of 1951, the KKK
bombed the home of the state’s NAACP director, mur -
dering Harry T . Moore and his wife . 355 During the 1963 civil rights protests in Birmingham, Alabama, white po - licemen and firefighters unleashed hounds and blasted
protestors with high pressure water hoses that stripped the clothes off their backs . 356
In Greenwood, Mississippi, white citizens and officials responded to Black voter registration efforts by cutting off food supply to Black communities, imprisoning Black people for “breach of peace,” setting fire to Black busi - nesses, and firing gunshots at Black activists in their cars, their offices, and their homes . 357 When Black activists organized the Freedom Vote and the Freedom Summer
of 1964 in Mississippi, 358 local sheriffs arrested three activists and turned them over to KKK members, who
proceeded to murder the activists, burn their car, and
bury their remains . 359
On March 7 , 1965, future Congressman John Lewis
led some 600 protestors on a march from Selma to
Montgomery, Alabama . 360 That “Bloody Sunday,” Alabama state troopers attacked . 361 Awaiting the protestors on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, state troopers rushed into the
crowd with nightsticks . 362 Troopers beat and bloodied protestors, knocking many unconscious . 363 Troopers frac- tured Lewis’s skull in the assault . 364 “I thought I was going to die on that bridge,” he later recalled . 365 The bloodshed at Selma prompted outrage across the nation, becoming
the tipping point that spurred the federal government to enact the Voting Rights Act that year . 366
The Voting Rights Act of 1965
The centuries-long Black struggle for freedom led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act, a landmark law that
prohibited many of the barriers described in this chap - ter, allowing millions of African Americans to vote . 367 In 1964, prior to the protections of the Voting Rights Act, 57 percent of eligible African Americans remained unreg -
istered to vote . 368 The passage of the Voting Rights Act resulted in a 21 percent increase in Black voter registra - tion—the largest gains were recorded in the south, where the percentage of registered Black voters increased from below 31 percent to over 66 percent by 1984 . 369
The Voting Rights Act empowered the United States
Department of Justice to enforce voting rights, autho - rized individual voters to sue in federal court to enforce their voting rights, and authorized the federal govern - ment to send examiners to register voters . 370 Among the Act’s most important provisions:
• Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act prohibits any voting restriction that “results in” the denial of the right to vote based on race, regardless of whether a state in -
tended to discriminate; 371
• Section 4 of the law identified certain state and local governments that had a history of discrimination
against African Americans . State and local entities
that demonstrated such past discrimination were
“covered jurisdictions” subject to greater oversight
from the federal government; 372 and
• Section 5 provided that “covered jurisdictions” were
required to obtain approval—or “preclearance”—
from the Department of Justice or a federal court in
Washington, D .C . before passing any voting rights
related law . The covered jurisdiction had to demon -
strate that the proposed voting change did not have
a discriminatory purpose or a discriminatory effect
on Black or other nonwhite voters . 373
When Black activists organized the Freedom Vote and the Freedom Summer of 1964 in Mississippi, local sheriffs arrested three activists and turned them over to KKK members, who proceeded to murder the activists, burn their car, and bury their remains.
149
Chapter 4 Political Disenfranchisement
Altogether, these provisions represented what the
United States Department of Justice called “the most
successful piece of civil rights legislation ever adopted by the United States Congress,” due to its role in elimi - nating many of the devices that had been used to deny
Americans their right to vote . 374
Within the last decade, however, the United States
Supreme Court has removed or weakened key pillars of
the Voting Rights Act . 375 In Shelby County v. Holder (2013), the Supreme Court struck down Section 4 of the Act as
unconstitutional . 376 And because Section 5’s preclear - ance requirements only applied to areas identified
through Section 4, the Supreme Court effectively elim - inated Section 5 as well . Though admitting that “voting discrimination still exists,” the Court felt that enough had been done because 40 years had passed and minori-
ty voting rates had improved . 377
Thus, the Court found Section 4 to no longer be neces - sary, despite Congress’s renewal of Section 4 in 2006 by an overwhelming majority (the House voted 390 in favor
to 33 opposed; the Senate passed it unanimously), and
despite Congress’s finding that “40 years has not been
a sufficient amount of time to eliminate the vestiges of discrimination following nearly 100 years of disregard
for the dictates of the 15th amendment[ .]” 378 The Court’s decision prompted Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to pro -
test in dissent that striking down this provision of the Voting Rights Act “when it has worked and is continuing to work” is “like throwing away your umbrella in a rain - storm because you are not getting wet . ” 379
Eight years later, the Court weakened Section 2 of the
Voting Rights Act as well . 380 Though Section 2 prohibits any voting law that “results in” the denial of voting rights based on race, the Court, in Brnovich
v. Democratic National Committee , re-
wrote the law to limit its reach . 381
While Section 2 speaks only to vot -
ers’ rights, and the need to protect
them against racial discrimination,
the Supreme Court created a new re-
quirement for courts to consider the
“strength of the state interests . ” 382
By inserting the state’s goals into
the equation, the Supreme Court
flipped the Voting Rights Act from a civil rights act into a balancing act, allowing voting rights to be sacrificed if a court believed the state’s goals to be worthy enough . 383 The Court also declared that the legality of a voting re - striction should be evaluated partly based on whether
the law “has a long pedigree” or was in “widespread use” as of 1982, the year Congress amended the Voting Rights Act to prohibit laws that “result in” racially discrimina - tory denials of the right to vote . 384 But, as detailed in this chapter, many racially discriminatory voting restric- tions have had a long and widespread pedigree in this
nation’s history . Poll taxes and literacy tests existed for almost 100 years—some restrictions even longer . 385 By considering a voting restriction’s use in the past as a basis for accepting it, the Supreme Court’s decision enables
discriminatory restrictions to remain in place, simply
because they had been used previously .
The Supreme Court’s elimination or weakening of the
anti-discrimination protections in Sections 2, 4, and 5 of the Voting Rights Act has opened the floodgates for laws restricting voter access across the nation . Hours after the Shelby County v. Holder decision, Texas implemented a strict photo ID law that had previously been rejected under Section 5 . 386
That summer, the North Carolina legislature also passed a sweeping law that instituted a stringent photo ID re - quirement, eliminated same-day voting registration,
and cut back on early voting . 387 Over the four years fol - lowing Shelby County , jurisdictions previously covered under Section 5 closed 1,173 polling places, many in
districts with majority Latino and Black voters . 388 States also limited voting hours, limited the ability to vote via mail-in ballots, and purged voter registration rolls . 389 While these restrictions limited voting access for all
Americans, they also targeted or specially affected
African Americans . The removal of polling places in
Ohio ensured that “ African Americans in Ohio wait[] in line for fifty-two minutes to vote, while whites wait[] only eighteen minutes .” 390 After record turnout of Black voters in Georgia helped flip federal elections in favor of Democrats in 2020, Georgia’s Republican state legis - lature passed a law limiting drop boxes for mail ballots, introducing more rigid voter identification require -
ments for absentee ballots, and criminalizing the act
of providing food or water to people waiting in line to vote . 391 In a recent lawsuit filed in federal court, the U .S .
Department of Justice asserts that Georgia enacted these restrictions specifically to target Black voters . 392 Within the last decade, however, the United States Supreme Court has removed or weakened key pillars of the Voting Rights Act. In Shelby County v. Holder (2013), the Supreme Court struck down Section 4 of the Act as unconstitutional.
150
Chapter 4 Political Disenfranchisement
Overall, states across the country introduced 389 re -
strictive voting laws from January to May 2021, alone . 393 With the Supreme Court’s recent limitations of the
Voting Rights Act, laws like Georgia’s are becoming the new norm across the country . 394
California
In the latter half of the 20th century, California began taking steps to expand voting access . California encour- aged county and volunteer voting registration efforts
in the 1950s and 1960s, and it amended its constitu -
tion to eliminate its literacy test in 1970 . 395 In the 1970s, California relaxed its rules for requesting absentee bal - lots and for remaining on the voter registries from year to year . 396 More recently, the state enacted the California Voting Rights Act in 2001, which permits citizens to file suit in state court to challenge racially discriminato - ry restrictions in at-large elections without having to demonstrate the higher evidentiary standards required
under the federal Voting Rights Act . 397
Despite the state’s efforts to advance voting access, the federal government has observed that California and
some of its cities and counties have continued to en -
gage in voting discrimination throughout the late 20th
century . The U .S . Attorney General determined that
California’s use of a statewide literacy test to restrict voting during the November 1968 election violated the
federal Voting Rights Act . 398
From 1968 to 1976, the United States Department of
Justice also identified Kings County, Monterey County,
and Yuba County as engaging in
discriminatory practices, monitor -
ing these counties and objecting to
various new voting restrictions pro-
posed by these counties well into
the 2000s . 399 As another example,
the United States Department of
Justice objected to Merced County’s
redistricting plan in 1992, a plan
opposed by both Black and Latino
communities because it would have
denied them the opportunity to
elect their preferred candidate . 400 Thus, while California has enacted laws expanding voting rights, equal access
to the ballot box continues to be an ongoing challenge
in parts of the state .
VI . Effects of Restrictions on Black Political Participation Before the Voting Rights Act of 1965
When adopting the numerous voting restrictions de -
scribed in this chapter, states made their intent clear .
As one Virginia Senator explained, these restrictions
were meant “to discriminate to the very extremity of
permissible action under the limitations of the Federal Constitution, with a view to the elimination of every
negro voter who can be gotten rid of, legally, without im- pairing the numerical strength of the white electorate .” 401 These methods proved effective . Once Louisiana ad -
opted a number of these restrictive rules in its 1898
constitution, the number of Black voters in Louisiana
plummeted from 130,000 to 5,000 . 402 In Virginia, the number dropped from 147 ,000 to 21,000 . 403 Mississippi’s constitutional convention cut Black voter enrollment
from about 147 ,000 to around 8,600 . 404
In 1906, five years after Alabama designed its exclusion- ary rules, only two percent of Black voters remained on the state’s voter registries . 405 With the suppression of Black votes, Black representation in Congress quick -
ly dwindled . During Reconstruction, 16 Black men held
seats in Congress . 406 From 1887 to 1901, just five mem - bers of Congress—in either the House of Representatives and Senate—were Black . 407 From 1901 to 1929, not a single African American served in Congress . 408 No Black con - gressman would be elected again from the South until
the 1970s . 409
These barriers prevented African Americans from gov -
erning, while securing the power of southern white
supremacists in Congress, who voted down civil rights
legislation and embedded racism into federal laws that
built modern America . Near the end of Reconstruction
in the 1870s, white southerners formed the “Southern
As one Virginia Senator explained, these restrictions were meant “to discriminate to the very extremity of permissible action under the limitations of the Federal Constitution, with a view to the elimination of every negro voter who can be gotten rid of, legally, without impairing the numerical strength of the white electorate.” 151
Chapter 4 Political Disenfranchisement
Bloc” in the Senate—a unified front of white Democratic Senators from the former confederate states . 410 After the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870, progres -
sive senators proposed hundreds of pieces of civil rights legislation to remedy discrimination against African
Americans in education, employment, housing, trans -
portation, public accommodations, and voting . 411 But for 87 years, every attempt but one died in Congress, many
blocked by the white “Southern Bloc” of the Senate,
who vigilantly thwarted any effort to advance Black
civil rights . 412
Not only did white southern lawmakers vote down civil
rights legislation, they also rewrote watershed pieces of legislation to exclude African Americans . Many histori - ans and economists consider the New Deal responsible
for creating the modern middle class and many of the
programs that Americans depend upon today, such as
Social Security . 413 But the New Deal excluded African Americans from many of its benefits . 414 At the time, 90 percent of the southern Black workforce, and 60 percent of nation’s total Black workforce, worked as farm labor- ers or domestic servants . 415
During the legislative process to pass various parts of the New Deal, southerners on the Senate Finance Committee
excluded farm laborers and domestic servants from
programs providing Social Security, minimum wage,
unemployment insurance, and workers’ compensa -
tion . 416 As several historians explain, the exclusion of farm laborers and domestic servants was “racially coded . . . Southern politicians, reported one architect of the new law, were determined to block any ‘entering wedge’
for federal interference with the handling of the Negro question .” 417 Thus, southern politicians rewrote the New Deal to exclude African Americans from its benefits,
fearing that federal benefits would discourage Black
workers from taking low-paying jobs in their fields, fac - tories, and kitchens . 418
In one of the final parts of the New Deal, the government spent $95 billion in the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 (GI Bill) to give millions of veterans returning from World War II the ability to attend college, receive job training, start businesses, and purchase homes . 419 Yet, one report from the 1940s observed that it was “as though the GI Bill had been earmarked ‘For White Veterans Only .’” 420 During drafting, the chair of the House Veterans
Committee, a white supremacist Congressman from
Mississippi, ensured that the GI Bill was administered
by states instead of the federal government to guar -
antee that states could direct its funds solely to white veterans . 421 Similar results arose in housing and health - care . For both the Hill Burton Act, which underwrote
the creation of a modern health care infrastructure, 422 and the Housing Act of 1949, Congress included segre -
gation clauses or rejected anti-discrimination clauses to avoid southern lawmakers’ opposition, which otherwise
would have doomed the legislation . 423
Thus, by barring Black political participation after
Reconstruction, white supremacists seized state, local, and federal power, perpetuated discriminatory policies, blocked efforts to redress discrimination, and exclud - ed African Americans from most of the major economic
legislation that produced the modern economy of the
United States . 424
After the Voting Rights Act
Since the passage of the Voting Rights Act, Black voters have been among the most stable voting blocs, despite
historic and ongoing efforts to restrict their ability to vote . 425 Black support has proved critical, in particular, in modern elections . In the last three presidential elec - tions, Black voter turnout was 67 percent in 2012, 60
percent in 2016, and 63 percent in 2020 . 426 Black voter turnout in each of these elections was higher than Latino and Asian Americans, and higher than whites in 2012 . 427 Though African Americans represent about 12 .4 percent
of the U .S . population today, 428 many political pundits recognized that the Black electorate played a significant role in determining the outcome in the presidential
election in 2020 . 429
Nevertheless, these longstanding limitations on Black
political participation have deeply shaped the lives of African Americans . If the goal of political participation is to ensure a government is responsive to the needs of its citizens, Black political participation is particularly important to serve the needs of Black communities who
experience the persisting effects of slavery and segrega - tion . But the suppression of Black political participation has prevented African Americans from exercising their
democratic voice, perpetuating policies that entrench
racial inequalities .
SOUTHERN VOTING RESTRICTION LAWS
DECLINE OF BLACK VOTERS ONCE PASSED BY STATE
96%Louisinana
Virginia
Mississippi
86%
94%
152
Chapter 4 Political Disenfranchisement
When African Americans gain greater represen -
tation, African Americans have a greater ability to
request and enact policies that meet their econom -
ic and educational needs . One recent study—the first
to examine the effects of Black politicians on pub -
lic finances during Reconstruction—found that
Reconstruction-era communities with more Black pol -
iticians had higher local tax revenue, as well as higher Black literacy rates . 430 In other words, the study suggests that communities with more Black politicians increased
their tax revenue, which in turn increased investment
in local education and Black education .
Another study found that the passage of the Voting
Rights Act led to some reduction in racial wealth dis - parities, especially in covered jurisdictions subject to greater federal oversight . 431 Comparing neighboring counties—where one county was a covered jurisdic -
tion subject to heightened oversight under the Voting
Rights Act and the other was not—the study found that
the Voting Rights Act narrowed the Black-white wage
gap 5 .5 percent between 1965 and 1970, a change driven primarily by increases in Black wages . 432
By protecting Black voting rights, the Act helped drive increases in wages by giving African Americans great -
er voice to seek public employment opportunities and
enabling African Americans to ask
for public funds to be invested in
their communities . 433 The Act also
allowed Black communities and
their representatives to implement
affirmative action and anti-dis -
crimination laws to protect African
Americans and their ability to
access equal employment opportu -
nities and equal wages . 434 According
to the study, the Voting Rights Act contributed to about one-fifth of the overall decline in the wage gap between Black and white Americans in the South between 1965
and 1970 . 435
Yet, African Americans can secure the benefits of po -
litical participation only to the extent that government policies respond to their voices . Despite modern gains in political participation and representation—includ -
ing Barack Obama, the first Black man to be elected
President in 2008, and Kamala Harris, the first Black
woman to be elected Vice President in 2020—African
Americans have not seen a similar rise in policies re - sponsive to their needs . 436
Studies examining more recent years have shown that
not only do African Americans hold less political sway
than white Americans when it comes to influencing
the government, Black support for a policy actually de - creases the chances that the government will enact it . 437 Scholars have found evidence that members of Congress
are less responsive to their Black voters than to their white voters . 438
Recent events underscore the government’s failures to
heed Black voices . For example, despite national and bi- partisan support for police reform following the murder of George Floyd, Congress failed to enact any police re - form legislation . 439 Similarly, Congress failed to pass any voting rights legislation—including bills with bipartisan support—to counteract the slew of state laws increasing voting restrictions after the 2020 election . 440
Likewise, Congress has consistently failed to pass leg - islation redressing the economic disparities faced by
African Americans . African American households, on
average, still earn one-tenth that of white households . 441 Chapter 13 The Wealth Gap delves into the wealth gap
between Black and white families and its causes . Many
of these problems can be traced to the discriminatory
laws and policies that continue to be felt today . Take, for example, housing segregation . Laws that historically enforced or sanctioned racial housing segregation have
produced neighborhood segregation that persists to -
day . 442 Because modern life revolves around a family’s neighborhood—including access to employment, credit
scores, housing values, the amount of funding for local schools or parks, and policing—the racist policies that produced neighborhood segregation have created a
discriminatory foundation upon which other laws have
been built . 443
Although increased political representation can allow
Black communities to try to change these systems, un -
doing these discriminatory systems is not a matter of
flipping a switch . Discriminatory policies have piled over decades and centuries, and undoing these systems is
much like undoing the literal concrete underlying a city and its streets and sidewalks . 444 It requires many years, if not decades, of durable and long-term commitment to
both change the old system and design a new one . The
sustained, long-term commitment required for change
means that the election of any one or several Black
Studies show that Black support for a policy actually decreases the chances that the government will enact it. Scholars have found evidence that members of Congress are less responsive to their Black voters than to their white voters.
153
Chapter 4 Political Disenfranchisement
politicians is not enough to fix the problematic policies at the root of racial inequalities . 445 Political participation therefore represents just one piece of the puzzle when
it comes to identifying the ongoing legacies of slavery, systemic discrimination, and what needs to be done to
redress them .
California
During California’s early history, Black Californians
struggled to gain representation in political office or to have a voice in party politics .
Beginning in 1870, most Black
Californians belonged to the
Republican Party, the party that had
abolished slavery . 446 But the white
members of California’s Republican
Party ignored Black Californians’
requests to serve in elected or ap -
pointed political offices . 447 Some
Black voters protested by joining the
Democratic Party in the 1880s . 448
But Democrats, too, refused Black
men the offices that they had promised in order to lure Black voters to their side . 449 Though Black men secured the formal right to vote in 1870, it would take nearly a half century before California’s first Black legislator, Frederick M . Roberts, was elected to the California
State Assembly in 1918 . 450 From 1918 to 1965, only six Black male Californians were elected to the California
Legislature . 451 California did not elect its first Black fe - male legislator, Yvonne Brathwaite Burk, until 1966 . 452 In more recent years, California has made many strides
in expanding voting rights access . As of January 2022, the number of Black elected officials in California’s
legislature is now proportional to the state’s Black pop - ulation . 453 But as described in later chapters of this report, the state still has not addressed many of the so - cioeconomic disparities that have resulted from these
longstanding barriers, disparities that profoundly shape the lives of Black Californians . While Black Californians may have a greater ability to vote in the ballot box today, Black Californians also have voted with their feet: many have left the state for opportunities elsewhere, reflecting continued failure to address their needs . 454
VII . Conclusion
Despite the promise of American democracy, the United
States has excluded African Americans from equal par -
ticipation in self-government . By doing so, government officials and private parties sought to recreate the ra - cial hierarchy that existed during enslavement . Though African Americans organized to pursue their equal cit - izenship, government officials resisted, retaliated, and undercut Black political power through the many means
and methods described in this chapter . Many of these
methods persisted for nearly a century—others persist
to this day . But all of these methods have limited the country’s efforts to redress the legacy of slavery and ra - cial discrimination, producing deep inequalities in the politics and policies that shape America and the lives of African Americans today .
Discriminatory policies have piled over decades and centuries, and undoing these systems is much like undoing the literal concrete underlying a city and its streets and sidewalks. It requires many years, if not decades, of durable and long-term commitment to both change the old system and design a new one.
154
Chapter 4 Political Disenfranchisement
Endnotes
1 Nat . Park Service, U .S . Dept . of the
Interior, Civil Rights in America:
Racial Voting Rights (2009), p .
4 (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
2 Id. at p . 8 .
3 See, e .g ., Foner, Reconstruction:
America’s Unfinished Revolution,
1863-1877 (1988), pp . 569-76
(“Foner, Reconstruction”
4 See Cohen, Negro Involuntary Servitude in
the South, 1865-1940: A Preliminary Analysis
(1976) 42 J . of Southern History 31, 48-54 .
5 See, e .g ., Nat . Park Service, supra, at pp .
10-14 .
6 See, e .g ., Hoag, An Unbroken Thread:
African-American Exclusion from
Jury Service, Past and Present (2020)
81 La . L . Rev . 55, 58-59 .
7 See Caro, Master of the Senate (2009),
pp . xiii-xiv; Katznelson,
When Affirmative Action was
White (2005), p . 113 .
8 See, e .g ., Agraharkar, 50 Years Later,
Voting Rights Act Under Unprecedented
Assault, Brennan Center for Justice
(Aug . 2, 2015) (as of Mar . 31, 2022);
Blackmon, Silent Partner: How the South’s
Fight to Uphold Segregation was Funded
up North, Wall Street Journal (Jun . 11,
1999), Eastern edition, A1; Brnovich v.
Democratic Nat'l Comm. (2021) 141 S .
Ct . 2321; Garrow, Bearing the Cross
(Vintage Books Media 1988), p . 255 .
9 See, e .g ., Brnovich v. Democratic Nat'l
Comm. (2021) 141 S . Ct . 2321; Shelby
Cnty. v. Holder (2013) 570 U .S . 529 .
10 Noe-Payne, Black Representation in
Politics is Poor Nationwide, Except
in State Houses (Aug . 15, 2020)
NPR (as of Apr . 8, 2022) .
11 Stephanopoulos, Political Powerlessness
(2015) 90 N .Y .U . L . Rev . 1527 , 1583
(Stephanopoulos, Political Powerlessness) .
12 See Katz, et al ., Reckoning with our Rights:
The Evolution of Voter Access in
California, UCLA Luskin Center for
History and Policy (Sept . 2020),
pp . 3, 7 (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
13 Smith, California’s Last Slave Case, N .Y .
Times (Mar . 5, 2014) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
14 Katz, et al ., supra, at pp . 3, 7 .
15 Cal . Dept . of Education, Key Points in
Black History and the Gold Rush (as of Mar .
31, 2022); Hudson, West of Jim Crow:
The Fight Against California’s Color
Line (2020), p . 8 (as of Mar . 31, 2022)
16 See, e .g ., Katz, et al ., supra, at pp . 20-27 .
17 See, e .g ., Hepler, The Hidden Toll of
California’s Black Exodus, S .F . Chronicle
(Jul . 25, 2020) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
18 See, e .g ., Foner, Reconstruction, supra,
at p . 417 .
19 Ibid .
20 Ibid .
21 Ibid .
22 Behrens, et al ., Ballot Manipulation and
the “Menace of Negro Domination”: Racial
Threat and Felon Disenfranchisement
in the United States, 1850-2002
(2003) 109 Am . J . Soc . 559, 571 .
23 Garrow, Bearing the Cross (Vintage
Books Media 1988), p . 255; Cronin,
Martin Luther King Jr Cartoon Sheds
Light on the Harsh Scrutiny He Faced
from 1960s Media, CBR .com (Sep .
2, 2020) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
24 Mayer, Nixon Rides the Backlash to Victory:
Racial Politics in the 1968 Campaign (2002)
64 The Historian 351, 351; McAdam and
Kloos, Race and the Modern GOP, Politico
(Sep . 25, 2014) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
25 Maxwell and Shields, The Long
Southern Strategy Explained:
How Chasing White Voters in
the South Changed American
Politics (2019), pp . 2-8 .
26 Perlstein, Exclusive: Lee Atwater’s Famous
1981 Interview on the Southern
Strategy, The Nation (Nov . 13,
2012) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
27 Cramer, What It Takes (Vintage Books
1993), p . 996-1000 .
28 Ibid .
29 Ibid .
30 Ibid .
31 Federal Election Commission, Federal
Elections 88 (Jun . 1989) (as
of Mar . 31, 2022) .
32 Baker, Bush Made Willie Horton an Issue in
1988, and the Racial Scars are Still Fresh, N .Y .
Times (Dec . 3, 2018) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
33 Nelson, Trump: ‘I am the Law and Order
Candidate’, Politico (Jul . 11,
2016) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
34 Sprunt, The History Behind ‘When the
Looting Starts, the Shooting Starts’, NPR
(May 29, 2020) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
35 Easley, How Trump Cleared the Park
Around the White House for a Photo Op,
The Hill (Jun . 1, 2020) (as of Mar . 31,
2022); Goldberg, James Mattis Denounces
President Trump, Describes Him as Threat
to the Constitution, The Atlantic (Jun .
3, 2020) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
36 U .S . Const . art . I, § 2, cl . 3 .
37 U .S . Const . art . I, § 2, cl . 3 .
38 Amar, The Troubling Reason the Electoral
College Exists, Time (Oct . 29,
2020) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
39 Campbell, Making Black Los Angeles:
Class, Gender, and Community, 1850-
1917 (2016), p . 8; U .S . Census Bureau,
History: 1850 (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
40 Engerman and Sokoloff, The Evolution
of Suffrage Institutions in the New
World (2005) 65 J . Econ . History
891, 895; Keyssar, The Right To
Vote: The Contested History of
Democracy in the United States
(2000), pp . 8-21, 54-60; Waldman,
The Fight to Vote (2016), pp . 7-8 .
41 Nat . Park Service, supra, at p . 4; Cobb
and Jenkins, Race and the Representation of
Blacks’ Interests During Reconstruction (2001)
54 Pol . Research Quarterly 181, 184 .
42 Foner, Forever Free: The Story of
Emancipation and Reconstruction
(First Vintage Books 2006), pp .
114-115 (“Foner, Forever Free”) .
43 Id. at pp . 117-118 .
155
Chapter 4 Political Disenfranchisement
44 See generally Jones,
Birthright Citizens (2018)
45 Jones, The Real Origins of Birthright
Citizenship, The Atlantic (Oct . 31,
2018) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
46 Foner, Reconstruction, supra, at pp .
444-449 .
47 U .S . Const ., 15th Amend ., § 1 .
48 See generally U .S . Const ., 14th Amend .
49 U .S . Const ., 14th Amend ., § 2 .
50 Maltz, The Forgotten Provision of the
Fourteenth Amendment: Section 2 and
the Evolution of American Democracy
(2015) 76 La . Law Rev . 149, 150, 178 .
51 Darity and Mullen, From Here to
Equality (2020), pp . 91-92 .
52 Enforcement Act of 1870, ch . 114, 16
Stat . 141 (1870); Enforcement (Ku Klux
Klan) Act of 1871, ch . 22, 17 Stat . 13 (1871) .
53 United States v. Cruikshank (1875) 92 U .S .
542, 552 .
54 U .S . Const . 19th A
55 Nat . Park Service, supra, at pp . 5-6 .
56 Ibid .
57 Foner, Forever Free, su-
pra, at pp . 121-22 .
58 Ibid .
59 Nat . Park Service, supra, at pp . 5-6 .
60 Foner, Forever Free, supra, at p . 143 .
61 Ibid .
62 Id. at pp . 143-44 .
63 Cobb and Jenkins, supra, at p . 184 .
64 Foner, Forever Free, supra, at p . 143 .
65 Nat . Park Service, supra, at p . 6; Facing
History and Ourselves, Black Officeholders
in the South (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
66 Nat . Park Service, supra, at p . 6 .
67 Nat . Park Service, supra, at p . 6; Facing
History and Ourselves, Black Officeholders
in the South (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
68 Foner, Reconstruction, supra, at pp .
318, 538 .
69 Id. at pp . 544-45 .
70 Id. at p . 538 .
71 Id. at pp . 511-63 .
72 Ibid .
73 Id. at p . 528 .
74 Id. at pp . 575-76 .
75 Id. at p . 576 .
76 Id. at pp . 581-82 .
77 Id. at p . 581 .
78 Id. at p . 582 .
79 Cal . Const . of 1849, art . I, § 18 .
80 Cal . Const . of 1849, art . II, § 1; Katz,
Modern California is All about Voter
Access. History reveals a Far Grimmer
Voting-Rights Past, L .A . Times (Nov .
3, 2020) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
81 Smith, California’s Last Slave Case, N .Y .
Times (Mar . 5, 2014) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
82 Smith, Remaking Slavery in a Free State:
Masters and Slaves in Gold Rush California
(2011) 80 Pacific Historical Rev . 28, 31 .
83 Cal . Dept . of Education, Key Points in
Black History and the Gold Rush (as of Mar .
31, 2022); Hudson, West of Jim Crow:
The Fight Against California’s Color
Line (2020), p . 8 (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
84 People v. Hall (1854) 4 Cal . 399;
Moore,“We Feel the Want of Protection”:
The Politics of Law and Race in California,
1848-1878 (2003) 81 Cal . History 96, 114 .
85 Hall, supra, 4 Cal . 399, 403 .
86 Id. at p . 404 .
87 Chandler, Friends in Time of Need:
Republicans and Black Civil Rights in
California During the Civil War Era (1982)
24 J . of the Southwest 319, 325 .
88 Ibid .
89 Hudson, supra, at pp . 37-38; see also
Chandler, supra, at p . 325 .
90 Chandler, supra, at p . 326 .
91 Hudson, supra, at p . 38 .
92 Chandler, supra, at pp . 326-27 .
93 Ibid .
94 Ibid .
95 People v. Howard (1860) 17 Cal . 63, 64;
Chandler, supra, at p . 324 .
96 People v. Howard (1860) 17 Cal . 63, 64;
Chandler, supra, at p . 324 .
97 Adkins, African Americans of San
Francisco (2012), p . 19 .
98 Gates, Jr ., The African-American
Migration Story, PBS (as of Nov . 18, 2021) .
99 Id. at p . 20 .
100 Chandler, supra, at p . 320 .
101 California African American Museum
Web Staff, #Blackhistory: On November
20, 1855, Delegates Representing Ten of
California's Twenty-Seven Counties Met at
St. Andrews AME Church in Sacramento
for the First California Colored Convention,
California African American Museum
(Nov . 20, 2019) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
102 ACLU of Northern California, Gold
Chains: The Hidden History of Slavery
in California (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
103 Ibid .
104 Hudson, supra, at p . 8 .
105 Smith, California’s Last Slave Case, N .Y .
Times (Mar . 5, 2014) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
106 Ibid .
107 Ibid .
108 ACLU of Northern California, supra .
109 U .S . Const ., 13th Amend .
110Colored Conventions Project,
Proceedings of the California State
Convention of the Colored Citizens,
Held in Sacramento on the 25th, 26th,
27th, and 28th of October, 1865 (1865),
pp . 15-19 (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
111 Shaffer, California Reluctantly Implements
the Fifteenth Amendment: White
Californians Respond to Black Suffrage,
March – June 1870, Cal Poly Pomona
(2020), p . 1 (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
112 Petition, Elevator (Oct . 11, 1867) p . 2 .
113 Smith, Freedom’s Frontier: California
and the Struggle over Unfree
Labor, Emancipation, and
Reconstruction (2013), pp . 209-11 .
114 Our Petition, Elevator (Mar . 27 , 1868) p .
2 (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
115 Waite, Early California Lawmakers also
Preached #Resistance — But Against
Immigration, L .A . Times (Aug . 3,
2018) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
156
Chapter 4 Political Disenfranchisement
116 Goldberg, California’s Shameful 1870 Vote
on Black Suffrage, L .A . Times
(Feb . 28, 2021), A18 .
117 Ibid .
118 Shaffer, supra, at pp . 41-65 .
119 See Report of the Attorney-General for the
Years 1868 and 1869 (Sacramento:
D .W . Gelwicks, c . 1870), pp . 6-7 .
120 Ibid .; Shaffer, supra, at pp . 42-43 .
121 Shaffer, supra, at pp . 41-62 .
122 Id. at pp . 62-65 .
123 Ibid .
124 Ibid .; Colman, John Ballard and the
African American Community in Los
Angeles, 1850-1905 (2012) 94 Southern
Cal . Quarterly 193, 215-17 .
125 Enforcement Act of 1870, ch . 114, 16
Stat . 141 (1870) .
126 Shaffer, supra, at pp . 41-62 .
127 Cal . Const . of 1879, art . II, § 1 .
128 Smith, California’s Last Slave Case, N .Y .
Times (Mar . 5, 2014) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
129 See, e .g ., Foner, Reconstruction, supra,
at pp . 569-76 .
130 See, e .g ., Foner, Reconstruction, supra,
at p . 550 .
131 See, e .g ., German, The FBI Has a History
of Targeting Black Activists, The Guardian
(Jun . 26, 2020) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
132 Foner, Forever Free, supra, at p . 134 .
133 Ibid .
134 Foner, Reconstruction, supra, at p . 55
135 Ibid .
136 Coffey, The Reconstruction Years: The
Tragic Aftermath of the
War (2014), p . 259 .
137 Foner, Reconstruction, supra, at p . 560 .
138 Nat. Park Service, supra, at p . 14 .
139 Blackmon, Silent Partner: How the South’s
Fight to Uphold Segregation was Funded
up North, Wall Street Journal (Jun .
11, 1999), Eastern edition, A1 .
140 Ibid .
141 Garrow, supra, at p . 195 .
142 Ibid .
143 Id. at p . 373-74 .
144 Ibid .
145 Morrison, Decades Later, a New Look at
the Black Panthers and Their
Legacy, Associated Press (Oct . 31,
2021) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
146 German, supra .
147 Stewart, Black Codes and Broken
Windows: The Legacy of Racial Hegemony
in Anti-Gang Civil Injunctions (1998)
107 Yale L . J . 2249, 2258-61 .
148 Foner, Forever Free, supra, at pp . 109-
111, 114-15, 163-64 .
149 Id. at p . 202 .
150 Cohen, Negro Involuntary Servitude in the
South, 1865-1940: A Preliminary Analysis
(1976) 42 J . of Southern History 31, 48-54 .
151 See Harris-Perry, Barbershops, Bibles,
and BET: Everyday Talk and Black
Political Thought (2010), pp . xvii-xxiii .
152 Cammett, Shadow Citizens: Felony
Disenfranchisement and the Criminalization
of Debt (2012) 117 Penn State Law Rev .
350, 360-61; Goluboff, The Forgotten
Law that Gave Police Nearly Unlimited
Power, Time (Feb . 1, 2016) (as of Mar .
31, 2022); Jackson-Gleich, Rigging
the Jury: How Each State Reduces Jury
Diversity by Excluding People with Criminal
Records, Prison Policy Initiative (Feb .
18, 2021) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
153 U .S . Const . 15th Amend ., § 1 .
154 See, e .g ., Nat . Park Service, supra, at
pp . 10-14
155 See, e .g ., United States Com . on Civil
Rights, Report of the United States
Commission on Civil Rights (1959) pp .
31-32, 67-68, 123-25, 144 (as of Mar . 31,
2022); Nat . Park Serv ., supra, at p . 12 .
156 Hearings before Senate Com. on Jud.,
Subcom. on Constitutional Rights, Bills
Relating to Literacy Tests and Voter
Requirements in Federal and State
Elections, 87th Cong ., 2nd Sess .,
p . 395 (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
157 Oregon v. Mitchell (1970)
400 U .S . 112, 133 .
158 South Carolina v. Katzenbach (1966) 383
U .S . 301, 333–34 .
159 Goldman, The Modern-Day Literacy
Test?: Felon Disenfranchisement
and Race Discrimination (2004)
57 Stan . L . Rev . 611, 621 .
160 McMillen, Dark Journey: Black
Mississippians in the Age of
Jim Crow (1990), p . 41 .
161 U.S. Com. on Civil Rights Report, Voting
(1961), p . 84 (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
162 Nat . Park Service, supra, at p . 12 .
163 Ibid .
164 Myrdal, An American Dilemma: The
Negro Problem and Modern Democracy,
Vol . 1 (Routledge 2017), p . 1325 fn . 34 .
165 Williams v. Mississippi (1898) 170 U .S . 213 .
166 Ibid .
167 Ibid .
168 Id. at 223 .
169 Ervin, Jr ., Literacy Tests for Voters: A Case
Study in Federalism (1962) 27 Law and
Contemporary Problems 481, 483 &
fn . 7; Nat . Park Service, supra, at p . 29 .
170 Voting Rights Act Amendments of
1975, Pub . L . No . 94-73, §§ 101-
102, 89 Stat . 400, 400 (1975) .
171 Robertson, North Carolina Lawmakers
Begin Pushing Literacy Test Repeal,
Associated Press (Mar . 30,
2021) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
172 See The White House, Joe Biden (as of
Mar . 31, 2022); Roberts, This Senate is
the Oldest in American History. Should we
Do Anything About It? Wash . Post (June 2,
2021) (as of Mar . 31, 2022); United States
Senate, Senators (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
173 See Nat . Park Service, supra, at p . 9 .
174 Waldman, Fight to Vote (2016), pp . 8,
11-13 .
175 Onuf, Thomas Jefferson: The American
Franchise, Miller Center
(as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
176 Ibid .
177 Walker, The Poll Tax in the United States
(1923) 9 The Bulletin of the Nat .
Tax Association 46, 47-48 .
178 Nat . Park Service, supra, at p . 22 .
179 Id. at p . 22-23, 70-71 .
157
Chapter 4 Political Disenfranchisement
180 Breedlove v. Suttles (1937)
302 U .S . 277 , 283 .
181 Nat . Park Service, supra, at pp . 23-24 .
182 Ibid .
183 Id. at p . 23 .
184 52 U .S .C . § 10306 .
185 Harper v. Virginia State Bd. of Elections
(1966) 383 U .S . 663, 670 .
186 See generally Riley, Voter Challengers,
Brennan Center (2012) (as
of Mar . 31, 2022) .
187 Id. at p . 1 .
188 Id . at 7 .
189 Id. at 2 .
190 Id. at p . 10 .
191 Ibid .
192 The Virginia Election: Convention
Proposition Carried – To Disfranchise Negroes
– Odd Features of the Voting, N .Y . Times
(May 25, 1900) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
193 Riley, supra, at p . 8 .
194 Ibid .
195 Id. at p . 1 .
196 Greenblatt, The Racial History of the
‘Grandfather Clause’, NPR (Oct . 22,
2013) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
197 Ibid .; Nat . Park Service, supra, at pp . 13,
15; United States Com . on Civil
Rights, Report of the United States
Commission on Civil Rights (1959)
p . 34 (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
198 Guinn v. United States (1915) 238 U .S . 347 ,
347 , 364-65 .
199 See generally Hasen, Do the People or
the Parties Own the Electoral Process?
(2001) 149 U . Penn . Law Rev . 815 .
200 Id. at p . 821; Reynolds, The Hustling
Candidate and the Advent of the Direct
Primary: A California Case Study
(2013) 12 The Journal of the Gilded
Age and Progressive Era 31 .
201 Nat . Park Service, supra, at p . 16 .
202 United States Com . on Civil Rights,
Report of the United States
Commission on Civil Rights (1959)
p . 109 (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
203 Nixon v. Herndon (1927)
273 U .S . 536, 541 .
204See, e .g ., Grovey v. Townsend (1935) 295
U .S . 45, 53 .
205 Smith v. Allwright (1944), 321 U .S . 649 .
206 Nat . Park Service, supra, at p . 21 .
207 See generally Goldman, The Modern-
Day Literacy Test?: Felon Disenfranchisement
and Race Discrimination (2004)
57 Stan . L . Rev . 611 .
208 Behrens, et al ., Ballot Manipulation and
the “Menace of Negro Domination”: Racial
Threat and Felon Disenfranchisement
in the United States, 1850-2002 (2003)
109 Am . J . Soc . 559, 562-63; see also
Brooks, Felon Disenfranchisement: Law,
History, Policy, and Politics (2005) 32
Fordham Urb . L .J . 101, 102–03 .
209 Behrens, et al ., su-
pra, at pp . 563, 566-69 .
210 See, e .g ., Cohen, supra; Shofner,
Custom, Law, and History: The Enduring
Influence of Florida’s “Black Code” (1977), 55
The Fla . Historical Quarterly 277 , 278-83 .
211 Behrens, et al ., supra, at p . 598 .
212 Ibid .
213 Id. at p . 560 .
214 Manza and Uggen, Locked Out: Felon
Disenfranchisement and American
Democracy (2006), pp . 37-39, 235 .
215 Levine, A Black Woman Faces Prison
Because of a Jim Crow-Era Plan to ‘Protect
White Voters’, The Guardian (Dec .
16, 2019) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
216 Ratliff v. Beale (1896) 20 So . 865, 868;
Goldman, supra, at pp . 626-27 .
217 Goldman, supra, at pp . 626-27 .
218 Id. at p . 626 .
219 Trop v. Dulles (1958) 356 U .S . 86, 92 .
220 Richardson v. Ramirez
(1974) 418 U .S . 24, 54 .
221 Ibid .
222 Hunter v. Underwood (1985) 471 U .S . 222,
228-33 .
223 See, e .g ., Simmons v. Galvin (1st Cir .
2009), 575 F .3d 24, 32 .
224 Goldman, supra, at pp . 632–33 .
225 Alexander, The New Jim Crow (2010),
p . 98 .
226 Goldman, supra, at p . 635 .
227 Chung, Voting Rights in the Era of Mass
Incarceration: A Primer, The
Sentencing Project (July 28,
2021) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
228 Ibid .
229 Wood and Trivedi, The Modern-Day Poll
Tax: How Economic Sanctions Block Access
to the Polls (2007) 41 Clearinghouse Rev . J .
of Poverty Law and Policy 30, 31, 35-41 .
230 See generally Cox and Holden,
Reconsidering Racial and Partisan
Gerrymandering (2011) 78
U . Chi . Law Rev . 553
231 Id. at 557-58; Crocker, Congressional
Redistricting: An Overview, Congressional
Research Service (Nov . 21, 2012),
at pp . 1-2 (as of Mar . 31, 2022); see
also, e .g ., Rucho v. Common Cause
(2019) 139 S .Ct . 2484, 2491-93 .
232 Ibid .
233 Cox and Holden, supra, at p . 577 .
234 Crocker, supra, at p . 2 .
235 Draper, The League of Dangerous
Mapmakers, The Atlantic (Oct .
2012) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
236 Ibid .; Li and Lo, What is Extreme
Gerrymandering, Brennan Center
(Mar . 22, 2019) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
237 Ibid .
238 Hearings before House Com. on Jud.,
Subcom. on Civil & Constitutional
Rights, on Extension of the Voting
Rights Act, 97th Cong ., 1st Sess ., pp .
2007-2014 (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
239 Id. at p . 2013 .
240 Ibid .
241 Chalmers and His Tale, N .Y . Times (May
26, 1882) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
242 Nat . Park Service, supra, at p . 38 .
243 Ibid .
244 Gomillion v. Lightfoot (1960) 364 U .S .
339, 346-47 .
245 Thornburg v. Gingles (1986) 478 U .S . 30,
47-51 .
158
Chapter 4 Political Disenfranchisement
246 Draper, supra .
247 Shaw v. Reno (1993) 509 U .S . 630, 641 .
248 Draper, supra .
249 Li, et al ., Who Draws the Maps? Brennan
Center for Justice (Sep . 16,
2021) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
250 Sears, African Americans and the New
Deal (1976) 10 The History Teacher 89;
Nat . Park Service, supra, at p . 19 .
251 Apple, Jr ., G.O.P. Tries Hard to Win Black
Votes, But Recent History Works Against It,
N .Y . Times (Sep . 19, 1996); McAdam and
Kloos, Race and the Modern GOP, Politico
(Sep . 25, 2014) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
252 Kloos, supra.
253 Igielnik and Budiman, The Changing
Racial and Ethnic Composition of the
U.S. Electorate, Pew Research (Sep .
23, 2020) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
254 Corasaniti and Epstein, Map by Map,
G.O.P. Chips Away at Black Democrats’
Power, N .Y . Times (Dec . 18,
2021) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
255 Rucho v. Common Cause (2019) 139 S . Ct .
2484, 2500-08 .
256 Clarke and Greenbaum,
Gerrymandering Symposium: The Racial
Implications of Yesterday’s Partisan
Gerrymandering Decision, SCOTUSBlog
(June 28, 2019) (as of Mar . 31, 2022);
Okonta, Race-Based Political Exclusion and
Social Subjugation: Racial Gerrymandering
as a Badge of Slavery (2018) 49 Colum .
Human Rights L . Rev . 255, 285 .
257 Bohrs, Prison Gerrymandering and the
2020 Census, Harvard Civil Rights-
Civil Liberties L . Rev . (Nov . 15,
2019) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
258 Ibid .
259 E . Ann Carson, Prisoners in 2019,
Bureau of Justice Statistics (October
2020) table 3 (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
260 Tamir, et al ., Facts About the U.S. Black
Population, Pew Research (Mar .
25, 2021) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
261 Blakinger, What Is Prison
Gerrymandering and How Does It
Impact Elections? Criminologist
John Pfaff Explains, Houston Chronicle
(Mar . 6, 2018) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
262 Cassidy, Far Too Little Vote Fraud to Tip
Election to Trump, AP Finds, Associated
Press (Dec . 14, 2021) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
263 See Minnite, The Misleading Myth of
Voter Fraud in American Elections,
Scholars Strategy Network (2014),
pp . 1-2 (as of Mar . 31, 2022); Nat .
Conference of State Legislatures,
Voter Identification Requirements: Voter
ID Laws (2021) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
264 Cunningham, Who are to be the
Electors? A Reflection on the History of Voter
Registration in the United States (1991) 9 Yale
L . & Policy Rev . 370, 379 & fn . 49, 383-85 .
265 Brown, The Ku Klux Movement, The
Atlantic (May 1901) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
266 Cunningham, supra, at pp . 379 & fn .
49, 383-85 .
267 Redden, Changing Focus and Exposing a
Solution: Using Section 2 of the Voting
Rights Act to Defeat Tennessee's Voter Photo
ID Law (2013) 44 U . Mem . L . Rev . 229,
235-236; Zoch, Then and Now: How 8
Election Policies Have Changed Since 2000,
Nat . Conference of State Legislatures
(Feb . 16, 2021) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
268 Klarman, The Supreme Court 2019 Term
Foreword: The Degradation of
American Democracy — And the Court
(2020) 134 Harv . L . Rev . 1, 48 .
269 See Minnite, The Misleading Myth of
Voter Fraud in American Elections,
Scholars Strategy Network (2014),
pp . 1-2 (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
270 52 U .S .C . §§ 20901-21145
271 See Ruda, Picture Perfect: A Critical
Analysis of the Debate on the 2002
Help America Vote Act (2003) 31
Fordham Urb . L .J . 235, 246-253 .
272 Klarman, supra, at p . 49 .
273 Daniels, A Vote Delayed Is a Vote Denied:
A Preemptive Approach to Eliminating
Election Administration Legislation that
Disenfranchises Unwanted Voters, 47 U .
Louisville L . Rev . 57 , 79-80 (2008) .
274 Nat . Conference of State Legislatures,
Voter Identification Requirements: Voter
ID Laws (2021) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
275 Government Accountability Office,
Elections: Issues Related to State Voter
Identification Laws (Sep . 2014),
p . 25 (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
276 Haygood, The Past as Prologue: Defending
Democracy Against Voter Suppression
Tactics on the Eve of the 2012 Elections
(2012) 64 Rutgers L . Rev . 1019, 1039 .
277 Id. at pp . 1054-1056 .
278 Ibid .
279 Desilver, Most Mail and Provisional
Ballots Got Counted in Past U.S. Elections—
But Many Did Not, Pew Research Center
(Nov . 10, 2020) (as of Mar. 31, 2022).
280 Ibid .
281 American Civil Liberties Union, Fact
Sheet on Voter ID Laws (2017),
p . 1 (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
282 Haygood, supra, at p . 1051 .
283 United States Gov . Accountability
Office, Issues Related to State Voter
Identification Laws (Sept . 2014),
p . 32 (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
284 Klarman, supra, at p . 50; see also
Sobel, The High Cost of ‘Free’ Photo Voter
Identification Cards, Charles Hamilton
Houston Institute for Race & Justice
(2014), p . 21 (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
285 Trotter, Vote of Confidence: Crawford v .
Marion County Election Board, Voter
Identification Laws, and the Suppression of a
Structural Right (2013) 16 N .Y .U . J . Legis . &
Pub . Pol’y 515, 552; see also Ross, Pouring
Old Poison into New Bottles: How Discretion
and the Discriminatory Administration
of Voter ID Laws Recreate Literacy Tests
(2014) 45 Columbia Human Rights L .
Rev . 362, 366-367; Ellis, The Cost of the
Vote: Poll Taxes, Voter Identification Laws,
and the Price of Democracy (2009) 86
Denver U . L . Rev . 1023, 1025-26, 1038 .
286 Wan, Inside the Republican Creation of
the North Carolina Voting Bill Dubbed
the ‘Monster’ Law, Wash . Post (Sep .
2, 2016) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
287 Trotter, supra, at p . 553 .
288 See Bouie, Republicans Admit Voter ID
Laws Are Aimed at Democratic Voters, The
Daily Beast (July 11, 2017) (as of Mar .
31, 2022); Wines, Some Republicans
159
Chapter 4 Political Disenfranchisement
Acknowledge Leveraging Voter ID Laws
for Political Gain, N .Y . Times (Sept .
17 , 2016) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
289 Pew Research Center, Party Affiliation
Among Voters: 1992-2016, (2016)
(as of Mar . 31, 2022).
290 See Wan, supra .
291 Hajnal, et al ., Voter Identification Laws
and the Suppression of Minority Votes
(2017), p . 16 (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
292 U .S . Const ., Sixth A
293 Amar, Jury Service as Political
Participation Akin to Voting (1995) 80
Cornell L . Rev . 203, 218-21; Ramos v.
Louisiana (2020) 140 S . Ct . 1390, 1394-97 .
294 Hoag, An Unbroken Thread: African-
American Exclusion from Jury Service, Past
and Present (2020) 81 La . L . Rev . 55, 58-59 .
295 Litwack, North of Slavery: The Negro
in the Free States, 1790-1860
(1961), p . 94; see also Strauder v.
West Virginia (1879) 100 U .S . 303 .
296 U .S . House of Representatives,
History, Art, and Archives, Civil Rights
Act of 1765 (as of Mar . 31, 2022).
297 See Equal Justice Initiative, Race and
the Jury: Illegal Discrimination in
Jury Selection (Nov . 2005), p .
15 (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
298 See Ramos v. Louisiana (2020) 140 S . Ct .
1390, 1396 .
299 Id. at 1394 .
300 Ibid .; Frampton, The Jim Crow Jury
(2018) 71 Vanderbilt L . Rev .
1593, 1605, 1607 .
301 Nat . Park Service, supra, at p . 13 .
302 See, e .g ., Frampton, supra, at p . 1598;
Hoag, supra, at pp . 62-63 .
303 See generally Equal Justice Initiative,
Race and the Jury: Illegal Discrimination in
Jury Selection, supra (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
304 Katz, et al ., Reckoning with our Rights:
The Evolution of Voter Access in
California, UCLA Luskin Center for
History and Policy (Sept . 2020),
pp . 3, 7 (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
305 Id. at p . 9 .
306 Ibid .
307 Id. at pp . 11-12 .
308 Smith, California’s Last Slave Case, supra .
309 Ibid .; Wheeler, Black California: The
History of African-Americans in
the Golden State (1993), p . 121 .
310 Moore, African Americans in
California: A Brief Historiography
(1996) 75 Cal . History 194, 195 .
311 See, e .g ., Jones, The Political Repression of
the Black Panther Party 1966-1971: The Case
of the Oakland Bay Area (1988) 18 J . of Black
Studies 415, 415-416 (Jones, The Political
Repression of the Black Panther Party
312 KNTV Channel 11 News Reels Aug . 23,
1966 (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
313 Morrison, Decades Later, a New Look at
the Black Panthers and Their
Legacy, Associated Press (Oct . 31,
2021) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
314 Blakemore, How the Black Panthers’
Breakfast Program Both Inspired and
Threatened the Government, History
(Jan . 29, 2021) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
315 Jones, The Political Repression of the Black
Panther Party, supra, at p . 417 .
316 Id. at pp . 415-416 .
317 Id. at p . 416 .
318 Abdelfatah, et al ., The Real Black
Panthers, NPR (Apr . 15, 2021)
(as of Mar. 31, 2022).
319 Jones, The Political Repression of the Black
Panther Party, supra, at pp . 415-416 .
320 Id. at pp . 428-31 .
321 Ibid .
322 Ibid .
323 Jones, The Political Repression of the Black
Panther Party, supra, at pp . 421-25 .
324 Morrison, Decades Later, a New Look at
the Black Panthers and Their
Legacy, Associated Press (Oct . 31,
2021) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
325 Cal . Const . of 1849, art . II, § 5 .
326 7 Witkin, Summary 11th
Constitutional Law § 277 (2021); see
also Ramirez v. Brown (1974) 12 C .3d
912, 117 C .R . 562, 528 P .2d 378 .
327 Uggen, et al ., 6 Million Lost Voters: State-
Level Estimates of Felony Disenfranchisement,
2016 The Sentencing Project (Oct .
6, 2016), p . 4 (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
328 Id. at p . 16 .
329 Id. at p . 17 .
330 McGreevy, Proposition 17 , Which Will Let
Parolees Vote in California, Approved
by Voters, L .A . Times (Nov . 3,
2020) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
331 Meier and Bracey, Jr ., The NAACP as a
Reform Movement, 1909-1965 (1993)
59 J . of Southern History 3, 4 .
332 Id. at pp . 8-10 .
333 Id. at pp . 4, 8, 10 .
334 Id. at pp . 14-15, 25 .
335 Id. at pp . 8, 23-25 .
336 Gilmore, Gender and Jim Crow:
Women and the Politics of White
Supremacy in North Carolina,
1896-1920 (1996), p . 102 .
337 Id. at p . 107 .
338 Jones, What the 19th Amendment Meant
for Black Women, Politico (Aug . 26,
2020) (as of Mar . 31, 2022); Nat .
Park Service, supra, at pp . 16-17 .
339 Jones, For Black Women, the 19th
Amendment Didn’t End Their Fight
to Vote, Nat . Geographic (Aug . 7 ,
2020) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
340 Meier and Bracey, Jr ., supra, at p . 21 .
341 Kluger, Simple Justice (Knopf 2011), p .
12; Nat . Park Service, supra, at p . 20 .
342 See, e .g ., Nat . Park Service, supra, at p .
20; Garrow, supra, pp . 97-100, 163-64 .
343 Scelfo, On MLK Day, Honor the Mother of
the Civil Rights Movement, Too, Time
(Jan . 16, 2017) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
344 Nat . Park Service, supra, at p . 27 .
345 Ibid .
346 Id. at p . 28 .
347 Fleegler, Theodore G. Bilbo and the
Decline of Public Racism, 1938-1947
(2006) 68 J . Miss . History 1, 1 .
348 Id. at p . 20 .
349 Id. at p . 22 .
350 Nat . Park Service, supra, at p . 25 .
351 Id. at p . 28 .
160
Chapter 4 Political Disenfranchisement
352 Ibid .
353 Ibid .
354 Ibid .
355 Ibid .
356 Garrow, supra, at p . 249 .
357 Nat . Park Service, supra, at pp . 50-52 .
358 Id. at p . 44 .
359 Ibid .
360 May, Bending Toward Justice (2013),
p . 8
361 U .S . Dept . of Justice, History of Federal
Voting Rights Laws (as of Mar . 31, 2022);
Nat . Park Service, supra, at pp . 65-68
362 May, supra, at p . 87 .
363 Ibid .
364 Rojas, Selma Helped Define John Lewis’s
Life. In Death, He Returned One
Last Time, N .Y . Times (Jul . 28,
2020) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
365 Ibid .
366 Nat . Park Service, supra, at p . 70 .
367 Berman, The Lost Promise of the Voting
Rights Act, The Atlantic (Aug . 5,
2015) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
368 Nat . Park Service, supra, at p . 65
369 Tate, From Protest to Politics: The
New Black Voters in American
Elections (1998), p . 1 .
370 Nat . Park Service, supra, at p . 69 .
371 52 U .S .C . § 10301(a); see also
SCOTUSBlog, Section 2 of the Voting
Rights Act: Vote Dilution and Vote
Deprivation (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
372 Avila, et al ., Voting Rights in California:
1982-2006 (2007) 17 Southern Cal . Rev .
of Law and Social Justice 132, 137 .
373 Ibid .
374 U .S . Dept . of Justice, Introduction to
Federal Voting Rights Laws
(as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
375 See Shelby Cnty. v. Holder (2013) 570 U .S .
529; Brnovich v. Democratic Nat.
Com. (2021) 141 S . Ct . 2321 .
376 Shelby Cnty. v. Holder
(2013) 570 U .S . 529 .
377 Id. at pp . 547-57 .
378 Id. at pp . 565, 593 (dis .
opn . Ginsburg, J .) .
379 Id. at p . 590 (dis . opn . Ginsburg, J .) .
380 See Brnovich v. Democratic Nat. Com.
(2021) 141 S . Ct . 2321 .
381 Id. at pp . 2337-2341 .
382 Id. at pp . 2339-40 .
383 Brnovich v. Democratic National
Committee (2021) 135 Harv . L . Rev .
481; Charles and Fuentes-Rohwer,
The Court’s Voting-Rights Decision Was
Worse than People Think, The Atlantic
(Jul . 8, 2021) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
384 Brnovich, supra, 141 S .
Ct . 2321, 2338-39 .
385 Nat . Park Service, supra, at p . 29 .
386 Agraharkar, 50 Years Later, Voting Rights
Act Under Unprecedented Assault,
Brennan Center for Justice (Aug .
2, 2015) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
387 Ibid .
388 The Leadership Conference
Education Fund, Democracy Diverted:
Polling Place Closures and the Right to Vote
(Sep . 2019), p . 10 (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
389 Brennan Center for Justice, Voting
Laws Roundup: December 2021 (Dec .
21, 2021) (as of Mar . 31, 2022); see
also Brnovich v. Democratic Nat. Com.
(2021) 141 S . Ct . 2321, 2337-2341 .
390 Klarman, supra, at pp . 59-60 .
391 Fausset, et al ., Why the Georgia G.O.P.’s
Voting Rollbacks Will Hit Black
People Hard, N .Y . Times (Mar . 25,
2021) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
392 U .S . Department of Justice, Justice
Department Files Lawsuit Against the State
of Georgia to Stop Racially Discriminatory
Provisions of New Voting Law (Jun .
25, 2021) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
393 Brennan Center for Justice, State
Voting Bills Tracker 2021 (May 28,
2021) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
394 See Brennan Center for Justice, Voting
Laws Roundup: December 2021 (Dec .
21, 2021) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
395 Katz, et al ., supra, at pp . 20-27 .
396 Ibid .
397 Avila, et al ., supra, at p . 152 .
398 35 Fed . Reg . § 12354 (1970); see Lopez v.
Monterey County (1999) 525 U .S . 266, 271 .
399 U .S . Dept . of Justice, Jurisdictions
Previously Covered by Section 5 (as
of Mar . 31, 2022); U .S . Dept . of
Justice, Voting Determination Letters
for California (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
400 Assistant Attorney General John R .
Dunne, Letter to Merced County
Clerk Kenneth L. Randol (Apr . 3,
1992) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
401 Report of the Proceedings and
Debates of the Constitutional
Convention, State of Virginia:
Held in the City of Richmond, June
12, 1901 to June 24, 1901 (Vol . 2,
Hermitage Press 1906), pp . 3076-77 .
402 Nat . Park Service, supra, at p . 14 .
403 Ibid .
404 Ibid .
405 Ibid .
406 Id. at p . 6; Facing History & Ourselves,
Black Officeholders in the South
(as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
407 Wasniewski, U .S . House of
Representatives, Office of History and
Preservation, African Americans in
Congress: 1870-2007 (2008), pp . 3-4 .
408 Id. at pp . 2, 4 .
409 Ibid .
410 Caro, Master of the Senate (2009), pp .
xiii-xiv; Grantham, The Life
and Death of the Solid South:
A Political History (1992) .
411 Caro, supra, at pp . xiii-xiv .
412 Ibid .
413 See, e .g ., Katznelson, When
Affirmative Action was White (2005), p .
113; Krugman, Paul Krugman - New Deal
Created the Middle Class (Apr . 1, 2011) (as
of Mar . 31, 2022); Mettler, Soldiers to
Citizens: The G .I . Bill and the Making of
the Greatest Generation (2005), p . 9 .
414 Katznelson, supra, at p . 113; California
Task Force to Study and Develop
Reparation Proposals for African
161
Chapter 4 Political Disenfranchisement
Americans (Oct . 13, 2021), Witness
Testimony - Jacqueline Jones, Ph .D ,
7:20-8:55 (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
415 Thomas, The Hill-Burton Act and Civil
Rights: Expanding Hospital Care for
Black Southerners, 1939-1960 (2006)
72 J . of Southern History 823, 827-
28; Lichtenstein, et al ., Who Built
America? Working People and the
Nation's Economy, Politics, Culture,
and Society (Vol . 2, 2000), p . 429 .
416 Boyle, The President Proposes… , N .Y .
Times (Apr . 5, 2013) (as of Mar . 31,
2022); Kotz, ‘When Affirmative Action
was White’: Uncivil Rights, N .Y . Times
(Aug . 28, 2005) (as of Mar . 31, 2022);
Lichtenstein, et al ., Who Built America?
Working People and the Nation's
Economy, Politics, Culture, and Society—
Volume 2: Since 1877 (2000), p . 429 .
417 Lichtenstein, et al ., supra .
418 Ibid .
419 Kotz, supra .
420 Katznelson, supra, at pp . 113-15; see
also Blakemore, How the GI Bill’s
Promise was Denied to a Million Black
WWII Veterans, History (Apr . 20,
2021) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
421 Katznelson, supra, at p . 121 .
422 Thomas, supra, at p . 823 .
423 Id. at 836; Von Hoffman, A Study in
Contradictions: The Origins and Legacy
of the Housing Act of 1949 (2000) 11
Housing Policy Debate 299, 309 .
424 Bateman, et al ., Southern Nation:
Congress and White Supremacy After
Reconstruction (2018), p . 385 .
425 Griffin, et al ., States of Change, How
Demographic Change is Transforming the
Republican and Democratic Parties, Center
for American Progress (June 2019), pp .
9-10 (as of Mar . 31, 2022); see also Ray
and Whitlock, Setting the Record Straight on
Black Voter Turnout, Brookings Institution
(Sept . 12, 2019) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
426 Fabina, Despite Pandemic Challenges,
2020 Election Had Largest Increase in
Voting Between Presidential Elections
on Record, U .S . Census Bureau (Apr .
29, 2021) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
427 Ibid .
428 Jones, et al ., 2020 Census Illuminates
Racial and Ethnic Composition of
Country, U .S . Census Bureau (Aug .
12, 2021) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
429 Stafford, et al ., ‘This is Proof’: Biden’s Win
Reveals Power of Black Voters, Associated
Press (Nov . 9, 2020) (as of Mar . 31, 2022);
Wiltz, 2020: The Year Black Voters Said,
‘Hold Up,’ Politico (Jan . 2, 2021) (as of
Mar . 31, 2022); Igielnik, et al ., Behind
Biden’s 2020 Victory, Pew Research Center
(Jun . 30, 2021) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
430 Logan, Do Black Politicians Matter?
Evidence from Reconstruction (2020)
80 J . of Econ . History 1, 2-3, 22-33 .
431 Aneja and Avenancio-Leon, The Effect
of Political Power on Labor Market Equality:
Evidence from the 1965 Voting Rights Act,
Wash . Center for Equitable Growth
(Oct . 16, 2020) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
432 Id. at p . 17 .
433 Id. at pp . 23-30 .
434 Ibid .
435 Id. at p . 18 .
436 Stephanopoulos, The False Promise of
Black Political Representation, The Atlantic
(Jun . 11, 2015) (as of Mar . 31, 2022)
(Stephanopoulos, The False Promise) .
437 Stephanopoulos, Political Powerlessness
(2015) 90 N .Y .U . L . Rev . 1527 , 1583;
Griffin and Newman, Minority
Report: Evaluating Political
Equality in America (2008) .
438 Griffin and Newman, Minority
Report: Evaluating Political Equality
in America (2008), p . 81-107 .
439 Sonmez and DeBonis, No Deal on Bill to
Overhaul Policing in Aftermath of Protests
Over Killing of Black Americans, Wash .
Post (Sep . 22, 2021) (as of Mar . 31, 2022);
The Editorial Board, Why National
Police Reform Failed, Wall Street Journal
(Sep . 27 , 2021) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
440 Logan, John Lewis Voting Rights Bill Fails
in the Senate Amid Rise of GOP-Led
State Restrictions, L .A . Times (Nov .
3, 2021) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
441 Rosalsky, What a 1968 Report Tells Us
about the Persistence of Racial Equality, NPR
(Jun . 9, 2020) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
442 Loh, et al ., The Great Real Estate Reset,
Brookings Institute (Dec . 16, 2020)
(as of Mar . 31, 2022); California Task
Force to Study and Develop Reparation
Proposals for African Americans
(Oct . 13, 2021), Witness Testimony -
Paul Austin (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
443 See, e .g ., Godoy, In U.S. Cities, The
Health Effects of Past Housing Discrimination
are Plain to See, NPR (Nov . 19, 2020)
(as of Mar . 31, 2022); Mitchell and
Franco, HOLC “Redlining” Maps:
The Persistent Structure of Segregation
and Economic Inequality, National
Community Reinvestment Coalition
(Mar . 20, 2018) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
444 See generally Caro, The
Power Broker (1974) .
445 Guinier, The Triumph of Tokenism: The
Voting Rights Act and the Theory of
Black Electoral Success (1991) 89
Mich . L . Rev . 1077 , 1134-1153 .
446 Daniels, Pioneer Urbanites: A Social
and Cultural History of Black
San Francisco (1990), p . 50 .
447 Ibid .
448 Id. at pp . 50-51 .
449 Ibid .
450 California Legislative Black Caucus,
Past Members (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
451 Ibid .
452 Ibid .; see also California Research
Bureau, Women of Color in
California’s Legislature. Increasing,
But Still Not Representative (Aug .
2015) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
453 Compare California Legislative Black
Caucus, supra, with U .S . Census Bureau,
Race (2020) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
454 Hepler, The Hidden Toll of California’s
Black Exodus, S .F . Chronicle (Jul .
25, 2020) (as of Mar . 31, 2022) .
Housing Segregation CHAPTER 5
I . Introduction
After the Civil War, federal, state, and local government officials, working with private individuals, actively
segregated American land into Black and white neigh -
borhoods . This housing segregation occurred over
almost 200 years, and through a variety of different
government strategies and policies . These government
actions were intentional and they supplemented and
intensified the actions of private individuals . These
widespread actions and the resulting segregation of
African Americans—both nationwide and in California—
are enduring badges and incidents of slavery because
they continue to affect African Americans .
Immediately after the Civil War, the country was racially and geographically configured in ways that were differ - ent from the way it is segregated today . 1 Most African Americans lived in the rural South, on or near the land on which they had been enslaved, in shacks or former
slave quarters . 2 In the cities of the North and South, African Americans mostly lived in racially mixed neigh - borhoods, even though Black residents lived in housing
of worse quality and in back alleys . 3
The average urban Black person in 1890 lived in a
neighborhood that was only 27 percent Black . 4 Since then, American federal, state, and local municipal
governments amplified actions by private citizens to
force African Americans into urban ghettos, while
helping white Americans buy single family homes in
the suburbs . 5 Rural America also became increasingly segregated, as Black residents left the rural South for economic opportunity and to escape racial violence
and terrorism . 6
As certain segregation methods were declared uncon -
stitutional, local governments ignored them or thought
up new ways to reach the same goals . 7 Although the de - cisions of millions of private homeowners, real estate
agents, and landlords settled Americans into segregated residential patterns, it was action by all levels of govern - ment which expanded and solidified these settlements
into the segregated neighborhoods of today . 8
Between the 1900s and the 1930s, local governments ac - tively planned cities to be racially segregated . 9 The real estate industry promoted restrictive covenants, which
COURTESY OF “NOT EVEN PAST: SOCIAL VULNERABILITY AND THE LEGACY OF REDLINING”/ HTTPS://DSL.RICHMOND.EDU/SOCIAL VULNERABILITY Homeowner’s Loan Corporation map of Oakland, CA. (1939) 163
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
were clauses written into deeds that prohibited non -
white residents from living in the house . 10
By 1940, the average urban Black person lived in a neigh- borhood that was 43 percent Black . 11 From the 1930s to the 1970s, the United States federal government built
public housing for white Americans, but not African
Americans . The federal government helped white
Americans, but not African Americans buy houses in
the suburbs . Throughout American history, up until the 1970s, white residents terrorized their Black neighbors by destroying their property, bombing their houses, and burning crosses on their lawns to scare them away from
living in white neighborhoods . 12 For a more detailed dis- cussion, please see Chapter 3, Racial Terror .
By 1970, the average urban Black person lived in a
neighborhood that was 68 percent Black . 13 Even after the passage of the Federal Housing Act, which outlawed
housing discrimination, urban renewal and other uses
of local government actions funded by the federal and
state governments maintained residential segregation . 14 The problem of segregation has never been corrected .
America is as segregated in 2019 as it was in the 1940s, with the average urban Black person living in a neigh - borhood that is 44 percent black . 15
In California, the population of African Americans
remained small until World War II, when African
Americans moved to the state to find jobs in the war
industry . 16 On the one hand, Southern California is an African American success story . 17 As W . E . B . Du Bois wrote of Los Angeles and Pasadena in 1913, “Nowhere
in the United States is the Negro so well and beautifully housed, nor the average efficiency and intelligence in
the colored population so high .” 18
In 1910, 36 percent of African Americans in Los Angeles owned homes, far more than most cities at the time . 19 On the other hand, all success is relative . Federal, state, and local government in California helped create segre - gation through discriminatory federal housing policies, zoning ordinances, decisions on where to build schools
and a discriminatory federal mortgage policy called
redlining . 20 As Robert Joseph Pershing Foster, a mi - grant from the small town of Monroe, Louisiana who
moved to Los Angeles in the 1950s said of his first days in California, “I came all this way running from Jim Crow, and it slaps me straight in the face[ .]” 21
Like elsewhere in the country, the effects of these
government policies at all levels continue to this day .
In 2021, in Los Angeles and Orange counties, only 34
percent of Black households owned homes, 22 less than in 1910 .
Section III of this chapter describes the history of U .S .
Supreme Court decisions which allowed residential seg - regation to intensify over the last 170 years . Section IV describes the state of residential segregation at the end of the Civil War, before government and private action
segregated the American landscape . Section V, VI and
VII explains how migration patterns across the country
led states, cities and communities to exclude African
Americans, how African Americans establish their own
communities in response and the racism that they faced
in doing so . Sections VIII – XIII details the various mech- anisms used by federal, state and local governments to
segregated America throughout history . Sections XIV
and XV describes the state of housing segregation today and its effects . Section XVI concludes that residential segregation in America is a result of white supremacist beliefs created to support enslavement and is the root of many modern-day racial disparities . Section XVII is an appendix of relevant data for reference . Each of these sections show the persisting effects of slavery in the
context of housing .
LOS ANGELES
PERCENT OF AFRICAN AMERICANS WHO OWNED HOMES
36% 1910
202134%
INTENSITY OF SEGREGATION IN AMERICA
27% 1890
1940
1970
2019
43%
68%
44%
164
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
II . Constitutionally Sanctioned Housing Discrimination The reason housing segregation has never been fixed
in America is due in part to the Supreme Court . As
discussed in Chapter 2, Enslavement, and Chapter 4,
Political Disenfranchisement, although the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Fourteenth Amendment to the U .S .
Constitution banned actions that continued the effects
of slavery, the Supreme Court of the United States de - cided in 1883 that the federal government could not
prohibit racial discrimination by individual business
owners and private parties . 23 This ruling later applied to housing . 24 As a result, government and private actors essentially ignored the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and
Fourteenth Amendment protections against racial dis -
crimination until Congress passed the Fair Housing Act
in 1968 . 25
The story did not end here . At the height of segrega - tion in the 1970s, the U .S . Supreme Court popularized the myth that the American government had no role
in creating housing segregation, and therefore should
not and could not fix the personal choices of millions
of private citizens . 26
III . The End of the Civil War
Immediately after the Civil War, the country was racially and geographically configured in ways that were different from the way it is segregated today . 27 Immediately after the Civil War, between 1860 and 1900, almost 90 percent of African Americans lived in the South, 28 and 80 percent of those who lived in the South lived in rural areas . 29 Many Black workers lived in former slave quarters, on the same plantation on which they had been enslaved . 30
Most modern-day scholars agree that white and African
Americans lived in the same geographic area in the cities at this time, although in unequal quality of housing . 31 White families lived in front streets and broad avenues and Black families generally could only live in backyards, alleys, side streets, or their houses were separated by physical barriers . 32 Impoverished shanty towns of un - employed African Americans also appeared around
southern cities in undesirable areas like swamps, near
city dumps, and next to cemeteries and railroad tracks . 33 “Ghettos were built up in nearly all Southern cities, not always sharply defined but pretty definite, and in these, Negroes must live,” wrote Du Bois . 34
At the same time, less than 10 percent of African
Americans lived in the North and less than 0 .4 percent lived in the western states . 35 Most lived in urban areas 36 that were much more segregated by neighborhood than
in the South, 37 and in worse housing conditions than white Americans . 38
In 1899, W . E . B . Du Bois’s landmark sociological study of Philadelphia summed up the situation: “[H]ere is a
people receiving a little lower wages than usual for less desirable work, and compelled, in order to do that work, to live in a little less pleasant quarters than most peo - ple, and pay for them somewhat higher rents . ” 39 Some families used up to 75 percent of their income on rent, as real estate agents raised the rent for Black tenants be - cause they knew many landlords did not rent to Black
tenants . 40 Most African Americans living in the North were only able to find jobs serving white families, and thus were forced to pay higher rents in the more expen- sive neighborhoods close to their employers . 41
In California around the end of the Civil War, African
Americans were few in number compared to other ra -
cial groups: the 1860 census counted 4,086 “[t]otal free colored,” 17 ,798 “Indian,” and 34,933 “ Asiatic” people in California . 42 As a result of their small numbers, Black Californians at the time generally lived in multieth -
nic communities 43 and occasionally also lived in small predominantly Black communities . 44 For example,
a group of 44 settlers, half of whom were of African
descent, who traveled from Sinaloa, Mexico, estab -
lished a settlement that later became Los Angeles in
1781 . 45 During the Mexican War, from 1846 to 1848, Los An old farm house with slave house in the foreground.
COURTESY OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICUL TURE/NATIONAL ARCHIVES 165
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
Angeles had a significant Black population as former en- slaved African Americans were brought to the area . 46 In Northern California, there was also a concentrated Black population along the banks of the Sacramento River in
a neighborhood comprised of Mexican and Chinese
settlers . 47 In that neighborhood, “rowdy young men and boys” attacked all three groups and vandalized Black and Chinese businesses . 48 African Americans also lived and worked in multiethnic mining communities such as Little Negro Hill near Folsom Lake, California . 49 California had four counties with fewer than 10
Black residents in 1890 . 50 By 1930,
California had eight counties with
fewer than 10 Black residents, which
author James Loewen argues is the
result of intensified segregation 51
Author Richard Rothstein argues
that after the large influx of African
Americans to the state in World War
II, government actions in California
imposed racial segregation where it
had not previously existed . 52
IV . The Great Migration
Between 1870 and 1900, many African Americans moved
from rural to urban areas in the South, looking for better paying jobs . 53 Over the next seven decades, as violence targeting African Americans intensified in the South,
and as Southern states passed laws that relegated African Americans in nearly every aspect of life to worse con - ditions than white Americans, the promise of better
jobs and the illusion of racial equality pulled African Americans out of the South to the North and the West . 54 This is called the Great Migration and, at its peak, 16,000 Black people left the South each month . 55
Historians have identified three migration paths out of the South (though not all African Americans followed
these paths exactly) . 56 The eastern path carried people from Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, and Virginia to
Washington D .C ., Philadelphia, New York, and Boston . 57 The Midwest path carried people from Mississippi,
Alabama, Tennessee, and Arkansas to Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, and Pittsburgh . 58 The western path carried people from Louisiana and Texas to California
and the rest of the West Coast . 59 More Black people moved to California in the 1940s than in the entire
previous century of statehood combined . 60 The Black population of California mushroomed form 124,306
in 1940 to 1,400,143 in 1970 . 61 By the end of the Great Migration in the 1970s, 47 percent of African Americans lived outside of the South . 62 Although many African Americans left the South to escape discrimination, the
lingering legacy of slavery, reinforced by government
actions at all levels, followed them across the country .
Historians have argued that the Great Migration led to
an increase in racial violence in the North and West, and an intensification of residential segregation . 63
V . Exclusion or Destruction of Black Communities
Nationally
As African Americans left the South, entire states like Indiana and Oregon outright banned African Americans
from living in the state . 64 Peter Burnett, who later be - came the first governor of the State of California, was involved in passing these Oregon laws to ban Black res - idents from living in Oregon . 65
In addition to entire states, many towns across the coun- try became known as sundown towns, where African
Americans were not allowed to remain after dark . 66
Although these rules were often unwritten, local sher - iffs and armed, white mobs enforced them . 67 Sundown towns were created largely between 1890 to 1940 and
they legally continued to exist through 1968 . 68 The so - ciologist James Loewen argued that most suburbs in
America began as sundown towns and that the home -
towns of nine out of the 32 candidates for president in the 20 th century were sundown towns . 69 For example, Harry Truman grew up in Lamar, Missouri, a legal seg -
regation town of 3,000 without a single Black family . 70 George W . Bush lived in Highland Park, a sundown
Many towns across the country became known as sundown
towns, where African Americans were not allowed to stay after dark. Although these rules were often unwritten, local sheriffs and armed, white mobs enforced them. According one scholar, California had more sundown towns than the entire South. 166
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
suburb of Dallas that only welcomed its first Black home- owners in 2003 . 71
California
Much like Indiana and Oregon outright banned African
Americans from living in the state as they left the south, 72 California also tried to pass laws banning African
Americans from settling in the state . 73 Although the laws did not pass, the California legislature, dominated by
white southerners at the time, sent the clear message
that African Americans were not welcome . 74 (For further discussion, see Chapter 2, Enslavement .)
Later, as residential segregation reached its height
between 1940 to 1970, local governments and resi -
dents created scores of sundown towns and suburbs in
California, 75 some by ordinance and some by force . 76 Loewen found evidence that eight California counties
effectively excluded Black people . 77 White Californians rioted to expel Black residents from California towns . 78 According to Loewen’s research, California had more
sundown towns than the entire South, which Loewen
attributes to the culture of racism in the South prefer - ring to exploit rather than exclude Black residents . 79 California sundown towns included most of the sub -
urbs of Los Angeles and San Francisco, and most of
Orange County . 80 Some of these places gained a nation - al reputation as sundown towns . 81 Loewen has collected research on numerous sundown towns throughout
California . 82 A list of the sundown towns identified by Loewen is included in Table 3 in the Appendix to
this chapter .
Fliers for the Maywood Colony, a suburban development
surrounding Corning, California, announced: “GOOD
PEOPLE - In most communities in California you’ll find
Chinese, Japs, Dagoes, Mexicans, and Negroes mixing
up and working in competition with the white folks .
Not so at Maywood Colony . Employment is not given to
this element .” 83
In South Pasadena, in the late 1940s, the city adminis - tration, local civic leaders, and realtors tried to cover South Pasadena with racially restrictive covenants . 84 A 1947 newspaper article noted the unusual and extreme
extent of this effort; the goal was to blanket the entire city with racially restrictive covenants . 85
As a matter of official policy, African Americans and oth- er nonwhite persons were only allowed to work in South
Pasadena if they left by dusk . 86 Limited exceptions were made for live-in servants and caretakers, but they could not live in the city on their own, and often could not
bring their children to live with them . 87 This campaign to exclude all nonwhite residents from South Pasadena
only failed after the Supreme Court ruled that racially restrictive covenants could not be enforced . 88
VI . Freedmen’s Town
Nationally
Banned from settling in entire geographic areas, and
escaping discrimination and racial violence, African
Americans began building all Black towns in the 19 th
Century in the Southwest, Midwest, and West . 89 Also known as Freedmen’s Towns, these towns developed in
order to, in the words of one Black town newspaper ed - itor, exercise freedom “as freedom was understood by
The Negro Travelers’ Green Book. The annual guide is for services and places relatively friendly to African-Americans. (1959)
COURTESY OF SCHOMBURG CENTER FOR RESEARCH IN BLACK CUL TURE/THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY 167
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
[African Americans] .” 90 Approximately 100 such towns were built between early-1800s and mid-1900s . 91 A par- ticularly large number of African Americans migrated
to Kansas . 92 Oklahoma had over 30 all Black towns . 93 Other states with such towns included Texas, Iowa, New
Mexico, and Michigan, as well as some in the former
enslavement states of Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky,
and Tennessee . 94
California
Although there is not much research on this topic,
some records suggest that there were at least 15 Black
towns in California between 1850 and 1910 . 95 The best known and most successful was Allensworth, 40 miles
north of Bakersfield . 96 Allen Allensworth, a formerly en- slaved Lieutenant Colonel from the U .S . Army, founded Allensworth with others in 1908 . 97 The town attracted disillusioned Black migrants who had fled the South, but found a different type of discrimination in California . 98 Unlike other Black towns in California, Allensworth
was self-governing, and at the height of its success
before the Great Depression, over 300 families con -
structed churches, a library, a school, and a general
store . 99 Black midwives cared for the health of the com - munity, as most doctors in nearby towns refused to
take Black patients unless the patient was employed
by a white rancher . 100
Allensworth spent more money on its schools than its
neighboring school districts . 101 Cornelius Pope, who lived in Allensworth and attended school there as a
child, remembered that his teacher Alworth Hall “wel -
comed [him] to the Allensworth School and with open
arms and asked, ‘Learn something for me today .’” 102
When Pope left Allensworth, he said, “it didn’t take me long to find out that I was equal to the very best . I was just as powerful, could think just as good, there was
nothing inferior about me . I was pretty hard to stop
from there on in .” 103
Despite Allensworth’s success, it was never truly in -
dependent; it had to rely on the government and
white-owned companies that controlled the water, the
railroad, and job markets . 104 In testimony to the Task Force, Terrance Dean argues that water, land, and rail - road companies discriminated against the town, leading
to its demise . 105 The Pacific Farming Company, after first selling land plots to the Black settlers at inflated prices, then prohibited land sales to African Americans, which
limited the town’s growth . 106 Despite its promises, the Pacific Water Company built only four water wells
for Allensworth, compared to the 10 wells it built in a neighboring white town . 107 The water dried up within two years and was contaminated with alkaline at first,
then arsenic in 1967 . 108 The founders maintained that the settlers were victims of a racist scam and were sold land that would never have enough water . 109
When it was founded, Allensworth was on the Santa Fe
railroad’s main line, which allowed the town to derive
revenue from the rail stop . 110 In 1914, the rail line was diverted away from Allensworth . 111 Not being able to earn revenue from the railroad stop or farming alone,
residents worked multiple jobs in the surrounding, dis - criminatory white communities . 112 Young people left the town to find jobs elsewhere, and Allensworth slowly died and disappeared as economic opportunities decreased
and the water calcified . 113 It was established as a state park in 1974, but remained critically underfunded and
unbuilt until the 2000s . 114
Lieutenant Colonel Allen Allensworth founded an all Black town outside of Bakersfield with four other settlers. T oday, Allensworth is a California State Park. (1926)
COURTESY OF IRMA AND PAUL MILSTEIN DIVISION OF UNITED STATES HISTORY /THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY 168
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
VII . City Planning for Segregation
Nationally
Anti-Black Zoning Ordinances
From the Civil War into the 1960s, as local governments planned the layout of their cities, they used planning
regulations called zoning ordinances to prevent African Americans from living in certain neighborhoods . 115
First, city officials in southern cities in the early 1900s passed Black and white zoning ordinances to ban
African Americans from living in
white neighborhoods . 116 When the
U .S . Supreme Court found that
these explicitly race-based zoning
ordinances violated the federal
Constitution in 1917 , city officials
used other zoning ordinances as
proxies for race in order to main -
tain all-white neighborhoods . 117
From the 1860s to 1900s, when
African Americans first left the
rural South for the urban South,
racial violence escalated, leading
to a number of large scale race vi -
olence and massacres across the
South . 118 Soon after, anti-Black zon-
ing ordinances were enacted in the
South and nearby cities . . 119 In 1910,
Baltimore enacted the city’s an -
ti-Black zoning ordinance, making
it illegal for Black people to move to
blocks that were more than half white, and vice versa . 120 Edgar Allan Poe, Baltimore’s city attorney and grand -
nephew of the famous poet, declared that the zoning
was constitutional, and the city’s mayor stated, “Blacks should be quarantined in isolated slums in order to re - duce the incidents of civil disturbance, to prevent the spread of communicable disease into the nearby White
neighborhoods, and to protect property values among
the White majority .” 121
Numerous other southern cities followed Baltimore’s
example, including Winston-Salem, Atlanta, Oklahoma
City, Miami, Birmingham, Dade County (Miami),
Charleston, Dallas, Louisville, New Orleans, Richmond,
and St . Louis . 122 Although only about 10 percent of African Americans lived in the North at this time, an - ti-Black ordinances were popular nationwide . 123 In
1915, the New Republic argued for residential racial seg - regation until “Negroes ceased wanting to ‘amalgamate’
with whites…” 124
Although the U .S . Supreme Court declared racial zoning ordinances unconstitutional in 1917 , states and cities ig- nored the decision for years . 125 In 1927 , Texas passed a law authorizing cities to pass ordinances segregating Blacks and white . 126 Other cities, like Atlanta, Austin, Kansas City, and Norfolk, made discriminatory zoning decisions based on official city planning maps that explicitly la - beled neighborhoods Black, until as late as 1987 . 127 Company Towns
Beginning in the late 18th century, large corporations
planned and built entire towns for their workers and
attracted them with benefits including housing and
mortgages . 128 When companies began hiring African
Americans after the Great Migration, these companies
typically offered Black workers housing that was lower
in quality . 129
In company towns like Gary, Indiana and Sparrows
Point in Baltimore County, Maryland, the best hous -
ing and jobs were reserved for American-born white
managers . 130 The worst jobs and the smallest, shabbiest housing went to African Americans . 131 In Sparrows Point, Maryland, the site of Bethlehem Steel, Black residents
were segregated from white residents . 132 Two room bun- galows with outhouses originally constructed for Black
workers, were given to white immigrants when there
was a housing shortage . 133 Blacks workers were forced to rent bunks in shanties that were originally intended as temporary housing . 134
Leaflet distributed in St. Louis Missouri advocating residents to vote for more stringent racial voting laws. Those homes marked with an “x” represent where Black families lived. (1916)
COURTESY OF HISTORY MUSEUM OF MISSOURI
169
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
Racialized Neighborhood Zoning
After the Supreme Court declared explicit racial zon -
ing unconstitutional in 1917 , city officials developed new strategies to segregate Black residents from white resi - dents by neighborhood .
The federal government joined this effort . In 1933,
President Franklin D . Roosevelt’s appointment to the
National Land Use Planning Committee, Alfred Bettman,
explained that cities and states needed to establish plan- ning commissions for zoning to “maintain the nation
and the race .” 135 These new zoning strategies included:
• City officials zoned neighborhoods for single family
homes, without change for decades . 136 This prevent-
ed apartment complexes from being built, which
effectively kept out African Americans who were
less likely to afford single family homes . 137 Influential experts like Columbia Law School professor Ernst
Freund stated that “the coming of colored people
into a district” was the “more powerful” reason for
the use of zoning, rather than the creation of single
family neighborhoods . 138 The United States Supreme
Court decided that this type of zoning law was con -
stitutional in 1977 . 139
• City officials relaxed or did not enforce zoning laws against white residents, but strictly enforced them
against African Americans and other people of col -
or and effectively chased African Americans out of
certain neighborhoods . 140
• City officials zoned Black residential communities
as commercial or industrial regardless of their resi -
dential character . 141 This created a vicious cycle . Black residential communities zoned as commercial or in -
dustrial attracted polluting industries and lowered
property values . 142 White families would be less likely to move into the industrial zone, as white families
generally had more money . 143 As
a result, it became increasingly
difficult to remove the commer -
cial or industrial zoning for these
Black residential communities . 144
• City officials limited new build -
ings by banning or imposing
large fees on new construction,
apartment buildings, mobile
homes, or factory-built hous -
es, 145 a practice known as “snob
zoning .” 146 Cities also demanded development or ar - chitectural specifications . 147 These ordinances had the effect of keeping poor people, large families,
older residents, single individuals, and people of col - or out of particular areas . 148
• City officials used dead-end streets, highways, cem - eteries, parks, industrial spaces, and rail lines to
create boundaries between Black and white neigh -
borhoods . 149 Black people were even prohibited from
burying the dead in white cemeteries 150 and from
using parks . 151
These strategies were often used in combination to
maintain the segregated nature of a neighborhood .
For example, in the St . Louis metropolitan area where
18-year-old Michael Brown was shot in 2014, city officials used a planning map that listed the race of each build - ing’s occupants to zone Black neighborhoods and the
land next to Black neighborhoods for industrial devel - opment in 1919 . 152 The author of the city planning map explained that the goal was to prevent the movement
into “finer residential districts . . . by colored people .” 153 In order to navigate the racial hostility that this segrega - tion caused, African Americans created their own maps,
travel guides, and other publications . 154 For more infor- mation on this form of counter-mapping, see Chapter
11, An Unjust Legal System .
White neighborhoods were zoned as residential, and
the single family homes in those neighborhoods used
restrictive covenants, as discussed below, to prevent
Black residents from moving in . 155 This ensured that the neighborhood stayed white . 156 The Black neigh - borhoods were zoned to permit polluting industry,
liquor stores, and brothels, which were banned in
white neighborhoods . 157 Later, the federal government cited the fact that Black neighborhoods were close to
industry and vice as a risk to property values . 158 Based on the federal government’s analysis, private banks
refused mortgages to African Americans in a process
called redlining . 159
School Siting Policy
City officials used the decision of where to build a
school as a way to concentrate African Americans in
In 1928, the city of Austin, Texas, adopted a master plan to create a “negro district.” The mechanism worked well. In 1930, Wheatsville, a racially mixed community in Austin founded by a formerly enslaved person, was 16 percent Black. In 1950, the Black population of Wheatsville was one percent.
170
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
poor neighborhoods with underfunded schools . 160 This strategy is referred to as a school siting policy . 161 Cities first banned Black families from sending their children to white schools, then moved the only school that Black students were allowed to attend into designated Black
neighborhoods and did not pay to transport Black stu -
dents who lived outside the Black neighborhoods . 162
In 1928, the city of Austin, Texas, adopted a master plan to create a “negro district,” in order to implement segre- gation, which the plan warned “cannot be solved legally under any zoning law known to us at present . ” 163 The mechanism worked well . In 1930, Wheatsville, a racially mixed community in Austin founded by a formerly en -
slaved person, was 16 percent Black . 164 In 1950, the Black population of Wheatsville was one percent . 165
After city officials segregated Austin, the “negro dis - trict” 166 on the east side had more unpaved streets, broken sewers, and fewer public transportation . 167 The city did not enforce the residential zoning ordinances, so the neighborhood became increasingly industrial . 168 City officials in Atlanta used segregation maps to guide the school board’s decisions on which schools to close
and where to build new schools . 169
California
Some scholars have argued that the first known attempt
by an American city to segregate on the basis of race was in 1890, when the San Francisco Board of Supervisors
voted unanimously to move all Chinese people within
San Francisco to a neighborhood set apart for Chinese
residents and businesses . 170 As African Americans arrived in California during the Great Migration, California
used segregation to reinforce the racial hierarchy cre - ated by slavery .
Northern California
In 1953, when the Ford Motor Company moved its
plant to Milpitas, California, and the labor union tried to build housing for its Black workers, the city rezoned the site for industrial use . 171 The city also adopted a zoning ordinance banning apartment buildings . 172
Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Orange, and Santa Ana zoned
Black residential communities as industrial to maintain neighborhood segregation . 173
In 1958, the Palo Alto school district chose not to build two integrated high schools to solve overcrowding prob- lems, but instead built a new school in the heart of the segregated Black East Palo Alto neighborhood, further
entrenching segregation in Palo Alto . 174
Southern California
In California, the then-prosperous Los Angeles neigh -
borhood of Sugar Hill is another example of the effects of racialized zoning . Prominent African Americans like Hattie McDaniel, the first African American to win an
Oscar for her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind , and Norman Houston, co-founder of what became the larg -
est Black owned insurance company in the West lived
and singer Ethel Waters lived in the neighborhood . 175 Waters remembered the day she moved into her house:
“During the day the moving men had brought my
things, and when I saw that they had placed each chair
and table exactly where I wanted, I burst into tears[ . ] ‘My house,’ I told myself . The only place I’ve ever owned all by myself … I felt I was sitting on top of the world . I had a home at last .” 176
In 1945, the white neighborhood association sued to
apply its restrictive covenant and evict the Black fami - lies living there . 177 When the white neighbors lost their lawsuit, the Los Angeles City Council stepped in and
rezoned the neighborhood for rentals despite the pro -
tests of the affluent Black families living there . 178 In 1954, the city built the Interstate 10 Santa Monica Freeway
through Sugar Hill and succeeded, finally, in destroying the Black community . 179
The adopted 1928 city plan of Austin, T exas created a “negro district” as “the nearest approach to the solution of the race segregation problem.
171
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
When South Central Los Angeles became a Black com -
munity in the 1940s, it had a mix of industrial plants and residential homes . 180 The City of Los Angeles rezoned much of the neighborhood for commercial use . 181 A plant explosion killed five local residents, 15 white workers, and destroyed more than 100 homes . 182 When the pastor of a Black church protested the industrial zoning near
his church, a city official replied, “Why don’t you people buy a church somewhere else?” 183
VIII . Eminent Domain
From the 1855 construction of iconic Central Park in
New York City to urban renewal in the 1970s, America
built parks, highways, and new economic developments
that destroyed Black or integrated neighborhoods .
Government officials used a legal concept called emi -
nent domain to confiscate private land owned by African Americans for these public uses . 184 The U .S . constitution demands that the government pay the landowner “just
compensation,” which is usually fair market value, but
often a disputed sum . 185
These government decisions evicted African Americans
from their homes and destroyed Black wealth . 186 It
shuttered thriving businesses 187 and severed communi - ty ties . 188 Alfred Johnson, the executive director of the American Association of State Highway Officials and a
lobbyist who worked on the 1956 Highway Act, put it this way: “Some city officials expressed the view in the mid- 1950s that the urban Interstates would give them a good opportunity to get rid of the local niggertown . ” 189
Scholars disagree over whether federal, state, and local governments racially targeted Black neighborhoods for
destruction, or whether these public works projects were situated in the area of least political resistance, which were incidentally Black neighborhoods . 190 Regardless of intention, the effect is clear: one study in 2007 found that between 1949 and 1973, 2,532 eminent domain proj-
ects in 992 cities displaced a million people, two-thirds of whom were Black . 191 African Americans made up only 12 percent of the American population at the time, and
so they were five times more likely to be displaced than they should have been when considering their portion
of the population . 192
These government actions destroyed the social, po -
litical, cultural, and economic networks created by
a neighborhood . 193 Evicted Black
residents struggled to find a new
place to live, as the compensation
offered by the government was of -
ten not high enough to buy or rent
in other parts of the city . 194 Evicted
Black businesses lost their location
and client base and were not usu -
ally compensated . 195 Urban renewal
displaced cultural centers, and in
certain industries like jazz venues,
it threatened the entire industry . 196
Forced evictions also are associated
with increased risk of stress-re -
lated diseases like depression and
heart attack . 197
Park Construction
The construction of parks in the United States has been used to harm Black people in many different ways .
Parks have been used to destroy Black or integrated
neighborhoods and act as a barrier between Black and
white neighborhoods . 198 The residents of these de - stroyed integrated neighborhoods were then resettled
into segregated neighborhoods . 199 Black neighbor -
hoods themselves lacked green spaces, as discussed in
Chapter 7 , Racism in Environment and Infrastructure,
From 1949 to 1973, compared to white
Americans, African Americans were
to be displaced
by eminent domain 5x
MORE LIKEL Y
When South Central Los Angeles became a Black community in the 1940s, it had a mix of industrial plants and residential homes.
The City of Los Angeles rezoned much of the neighborhood for commercial use. A plant explosion killed five local residents, 15 white workers, and destroyed more than 100 homes. When the pastor of a Black church protested the industrial zoning near his church, a city official replied, “Why don’t you people buy a church somewhere else?”
172
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
leading to negative health effects . African Americans
were often banned from public spaces, as discussed
in Chapter 9, Control over Spiritual, Creative, and
Cultural Life .
Central Park in Manhattan was one
of the most prominent examples
of racial segregation by park con -
struction . Cities across the country
copied Central Park’s policies, reg -
ulations, and design . 200 In 1855,
about 1,600 people lived in the
area in mixed race neighborhoods
called Seneca Village, Yorkville,
and Pigtown . 201 Even though state
law at the time prevented Black
New Yorkers from owning land,
more than half the Black house -
holds owned their homes in Seneca
Village . 202 The community included
two Black churches and one racially mixed Episcopal
church, a cemetery, and a Black school . 203 City officials destroyed all of it by 1857 to build Central Park with an all-white, male workforce . 204
In California, at least one current park is on the site of a formerly thriving Black neighborhood . On the land
that is currently Belmar Park in Santa Monica, the City of Santa Monica took away and burned down the homes
and businesses of people in the Black neighborhood of
Belmar Triangle through eminent domain for the con -
struction of the city’s expanded civic center, auditorium, and the Los Angeles County Courthouse . 205 Now there is a park commemorating the neighborhood . 206
The 1938 Underwriting Manual issued by the U .S . Federal Housing Administration (FHA) states: “ A location close to a public park or area of similar nature is usually well protected from infiltration of business and lower social occupancy coming from that direction .” 207
Slum Clearance
Throughout American history and across the country,
government officials, who are often white (see discus - sion in Chapter 4, Political Disenfranchisement), labeled Black communities as slums, regardless of what the
neighborhood was actually like . 208 This allowed govern- ment officials to demolish so-called “slums” to make way for commercial development, upscale residences, parks,
universities, hospitals, and corporate headquarters . 209 The federal government funded this strategy with the
1934 Housing Act, 210 and then again, comprehensively, with the 1949 Housing Act, which provided $13 .5 billion for slum clearance and urban redevelopment between
1953 and 1986 . 211 At the height of urban renewal in 1967 , the government destroyed 404,000 housing units, but
only built 41,580 as replacements . 212
For example, in 1953 the Memphis Housing Authority
declared that 46 acres of middle-class Black-owned sin - gle-family homes was a slum and replaced it with 900
units of public housing . 213 Homeowners had paid off their mortgages, improved their homes, and created a neigh -
borhood; “[t]he home owners are sick and distressed
beyond measure,” pleaded one resi-
dent in a letter to city authorities . 214
In another example, after African
Americans rebuilt in Tulsa following
the 1921 Tulsa massacre, city officials
declared the Greenwood commu -
nity to be a slum, and destroyed it
again . 215 Highway construction and
urban renewal also appear to have
compounded the economic collapse
of the Greenwood community . 216
In 1855, about 1,600 people lived in the area in mixed race neighborhoods called Seneca Village, Y orkville, and Pigtown.
Even though state law at the time prevented Black New Y orkers from owning land, more than half the Black households owned their homes in Seneca Village. The community included two Black churches and one racially mixed Episcopal church, a cemetery, and a Black school. City officials destroyed all of it by 1857 to build Central Park with an all-white, male workforce.
New Y ork City Housing Authority. ( January 1946- July 1949)
COURTESY OF GENERAL RESEARCH DIVISION/THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY 173
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
Freeway Construction
The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 built 41,000 miles of interstate highways and was the largest American pub -
lic works program at the time . 217 By the 1960s, highway construction was destroying 37 ,000 urban housing units per year . 218 From 1956 until 1965, the federal government did not provide any assistance to people whose homes
were destroyed . 219 During the first 20 years of interstate highway construction, more than
a million people were displaced . 220
In 2021, the U .S . Secretary of
Transportation acknowledged there
is “racism physically built into some
of our highways” because the federal
highway system was built specifically
to cut through neighborhoods where
property values were lowest . 221 In
most cities, federal highways were routed through Black neighborhoods . 222 For example, between 1948 and 1956, 86,000 people were displaced in Chicago, 66 percent
of whom were Black, even though at the time, Black
people only made up approximately 20 percent of the
city’s population . 223
In 1962, Detroit razed Black communities to build the
Interstate 75 expressway, a plan that the U .S . Commission on Civil Rights warned in advance would displace
4,000 families, 87 percent of whom were Black . 224 U .S .
Department of Housing and Urban Development offi -
cials knew that they would destroy Black homes and did
nothing to help these Black families . 225 The government did little to help these mostly Black families, businesses, churches, and schools . 226
The formerly-thriving Black neighborhood of
Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma—infamous for the
deadly anti-Black massacre of 1921—is now divided by
Interstate Highway 244 . 227 Greenwood now has one
block of businesses today . 228 Before the highway’s con - struction, the neighborhood had 35 blocks of businesses and homes . 229 Whenever affirmative infrastructure of this sort is constructed in Black neighborhoods, the
initial construction-related harms created are com -
pounded by the environmental pollution that is created
and generated on an ongoing basis . 230
Highway construction not only destroyed Black neigh -
borhoods, government officials also used it to fence
African Americans into certain neighborhoods . 231 A
federal manual recommends that “[a] high-speed traffic
artery or a wide street parkway may prevent the expan - sion of inharmonious uses to a location on the opposite side of the street .” 232 The term “inharmonious racial or nationality groups” was used by the federal government
to describe communities of color . 233
In Chicago, 28 identical 16-story apartment buildings
known as the Robert Taylor Homes were a national sym-
bol of failed public housing and concentrated poverty . 234 The project housed 27 ,000 residents, nearly all of whom were African American . 235
The City of Chicago used the Day Ryan expressway to
cut off the Robert Taylor Homes from the surrounding
neighborhoods . 236 Studies have shown that inter -
state highways also fenced in Black neighborhoods in
Memphis, Richmond, Kansas City, Atlanta, Tulsa,
and Charleston . 237
California
In California, eminent domain was used against Black
communities, as well as other communities of color .
As in the rest of the country, California used park con - struction, slum clearance, and freeway construction to
destroy Black communities .
Interstate 980 severed the predominantly Black neighborhoods of West Oakland from the rest of the city, setting the stage for underfunding of municipal projects in the area. Excavation site of Interstate 980. (1976)
COURTESY OF ROY H. WILLIAMS/MEDIANEWS GROUP/OAKLAND TRIBUNE VIA GETTY IMAGES From 1956 until 1965, the federal government did not provide any assistance to people whose homes were destroyed. During the first 20 years of interstate highway construction, more than a million people were displaced.
174
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
On September 23 and 24, 2021, California residents
Jonathan Burgess and Dawn Basciano testified before
the Task Force that state officials built the Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park in Coloma, California on
their family’s land without just compensation . 238 They also testified that the California Department of Parks
and Recreation has not appropriately commemorated
the history of the Black families who owned the land . 239 In Southern California, the city of Manhattan Beach
destroyed a racially integrated beach front neighbor -
hood . 240 Willa Bruce, who was Black, had purchased the beach front property in 1912 to run a lodge, café, and
dance hall . 241 White people in the area tried to push her out by slashing her tires, setting fire to a mattress under her deck, and posting “No Trespassing” signs and fake
parking restrictions to chase away Black customers . 242 In 1924, Manhattan Beach city officials confiscated the beach front property of several Black and white families, including the Bruces, citing an urgent need for a pub - lic park . 243 The Bruces sued for $120,000 and received $14,500 . 244 The other families, Black and white, received between $1,200 and $4,200 per lot . 245 According the Bruce family lawyer, the city did not pay for years and barred them from purchasing new land in the area, forc- ing the Bruces to leave without any income . 246
The land lay vacant for decades until a park was built in the 1950s . 247 The family moved to South Los Angeles and eventually left California . 248 Having lost their property, Willa and her husband Charles worked for other business owners for the remainder of their lives . 249 Estimates of the fair market value today of the Bruce family land is between $40 million to $70 million . 250 In the fall of 2021, the state of California authorized Los Angeles County to transfer the land back to the Bruce family after nearly 100 years . 251 African Americans were pushed out
of other beach cities, as described
by Dr . Alison Rose Jefferson to the
Task Force on December 8, 2021 . 252
Initially, Santa Monica was not
only home to a African American
community; it was also a tourist
destination for African Americans
throughout the Los Angeles area . 253
But, in 1922, a Black investment
group was blocked from develop -
ing a resort and amusement facility
along the oceanfront . 254 After the
Black investors could not build the facility, white de - velopers purchased the land and constructed the
Casa del Mar and the Edgewater clubs in the area . 255 Black investors were also unable to build a planned
Black membership-based club in Santa Monica in 1958
because the city took over the land through eminent do- main proceedings for a purported parking lot . 256 These investors asserted racial discrimination and attempted
to stop the cities proceedings in court but lost . 257 Now, the upscale Viceroy hotel is located at the site . 258 In 1945, California passed the Community Redevelopment
Act, which allowed for the redevelopment of “blighted
areas” in urban and suburban communities . 259 The law defined a “blighted area” as a social or economic liabil - ity that needed redevelopment for the “health, safety,
and general welfare” of the communities in which they
existed . 260 An area was deemed “blighted” if one of the following conditions was present: 261
• Areas with buildings that had “faulty interior ar -
rangement and exterior spacing,” or housed a “high
density population,” leading to overcrowding and
infectious disease outbreaks; 262
• Areas with buildings that had “inadequate provision
for ventilation, light, [or] sanitation, open spaces and recreation facilities” or dilapidation; 263
• Areas with economic deterioration or underuse of
valuable land; 264
• Areas with “depreciated values” that could gener -
ate more tax revenue to fund public services for the
residents; 265 and
• Areas that were “beyond remedy” and contributed
“substantially” to problems of crime . 266
Each of these conditions described the harms of resi -
dential segregation . As discussed above, buildings in
Black neighborhoods are generally more likely to be
overcrowded and are in poorer condition . As discussed
in Chapter 7 , Racism in Environment and Infrastructure, the effects of redlining made land in Black neighbor -
hoods less valuable than they actually were and local
City agencies declared that the Western Addition was blighted in 1948 and began tearing it down in 1956. The plan was one of the largest projects of urban renewal on the West Coast. The City of San Francisco closed 883 business, displaced 4,729 households, destroyed 2,500 Victorian homes and damaged the lives of nearly 20,000 people.
175
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
governments intentionally slowed and deprived these
communities of services . Redlining concentrated pov -
erty and crime into Black neighborhoods and implicit
biases based in racist beliefs created during enslavement have, to this day, led the American public to associate African Americans with crime, and contribute to the
over- and under-policing of Black communities .
In Northern California, this law was used to demolish
the Fillmore, which was San Francisco’s most prominent
Black neighborhood and business district . 267 Known as the Harlem of the West, the Fillmore was an integrated
neighborhood 268 that was famous for its jazz venues that hosted Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Charles Mingus, and Louis Armstrong . 269
City agencies declared that the Western Addition was
blighted in 1948 and began tearing it down in 1956 . 270 The plan was one of the largest projects of urban renewal on the West Coast . 271 The City of San Francisco closed 883 business, displaced 4,729 households, destroyed
2,500 Victorian homes 272 and damaged the lives of near- ly 20,000 people . 273 “The agency would go to a house and give the head of household a certificate that said
they would be given preference in housing built in the
future,” Benjamin Ibarra, a spokesman for the agency,
said in 2008 . “But there wasn't a lot of housing built for a long time .” 274 The San Francisco city government left the land empty for many years . 275
Another example of a predominantly Black commu -
nity in Northern California that urban redevelopment
destroyed is Russell City . Founded in 1853 along the
Hayward shoreline in Alameda County, Danish immi -
grants initially lived in Russell City . 276 By World War II, Russell City became primarily Black and Latino . 277
“We were left to fend for ourselves . We had no public
sewer system, so you saw many homes with outhouses,
we had wells with no running water, the electrical grid was so unstable that many times we were in the dark,”
said former Russell City resident Marian “Edie” Eddens, who stated that living in Russell City was “the major chal- lenge of [her] life .” 278
While Russell City lacked basic infrastructure and was
economically poor, it was a culturally rich community . 279 “Music and literature were my saving graces,” recalled
Gloria Bratton Sanders Moore, former resident of
Russell City . 280 Blues legends like Ray Charles and Etta James were known to perform at Russell City clubs when
touring the west coast . 281
By the 1950s, Russell City was declared a “blight” by
neighboring Hayward officials . 282 In 1963, the local gov - ernments of the City of Hayward and Alameda County
forcibly relocated all Russell City residents, bulldozed the community, and rezoned the land for industrial
use . 283 Descendants of Russell City residents claim that displaced homeowners were forced to sell their land
Map of San Francisco depicting where family displacement occurs due to urban renewal. (Accessed April 2022) COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND DIGITAL SCHOLARSHIP LAB DIGITAL SCHOLARSHIP LAB, “RENEWING INEQUALITY ,” AMERICAN PANORAMA, ED. ROBERT K. NELSON AND EDWARD L. A YERS 176
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
without fair compensation . 284 In 2021, the Hayward City Council passed a resolution formally apologizing to for - mer Russell City residents for its participation in racially discriminatory housing practices such as racial steering and redlining . 285
In Southern California, in 1950, the Los Angeles City
Planning Commission planned to demolish 11 blighted
areas; all but one were majority Mexican American or
African American neighborhoods . 286
Many of California’s freeways were routed through
Black neighborhoods . As noted above, the City of Los
Angeles destroyed the prosperous Black neighborhood
of Sugar Hill in 1954 by building the Interstate 10 free - way . 287 Former residents said that the amount that the government paid for their homes was inadequate, and
below market value . 288 Los Angeles did it again in 1968 by building the Century Freeway through the Black neigh -
borhoods of Watts and Willowbrook, displacing 3,550
families, 117 businesses, parks, schools, and churches . 289 The Interstate 210 freeway destroyed a Black business
district and racially diverse communities in Pasadena in the 1950s . 290 The city offered residents $75,000 for their homes, less than the minimum cost of purchasing a new
home in Pasadena . 291 The freeway forced 4,000 Black and Mexican American residents to move back to inner-city
Los Angeles . 292
In Oakland, a total of 503 homes, 22 businesses, four
churches, and 155 trees were demolished to construct
Interstate 980 . 293 Once completed in 1985, the highway severed the predominantly Black neighborhoods of West
Oakland from the rest of the city, setting the stage for underfunding of municipal projects in the area . 294
In Fresno, the construction of highways 41 and 99 de -
stroyed blocks of homes where Black families lived . 295 In San Diego, much like in other parts of the state, the construction of freeways such as Interstate 5 disrupted African American communities . 296
IX . Public Housing
The construction of government funded housing, or
public housing, has contributed to housing segrega -
tion in two major ways throughout American history .
First, from World War I until the 1950s, the federal
government built high quality hous-
ing . 297 Generally, federal practices
did not allow African Americans to
live in these high quality buildings,
often building separate, low quality
units for African Americans . 298
Then, from 1950s, as the federal
government subsidized mortgag -
es for white families to move to
the suburbs and paid local gov -
ernments to demolish racially
integrated neighborhoods, it also
built high-rise apartment build -
ings in urban neighborhoods that were cut off from the
richer, white suburbs . 299 These high-rise public housing projects concentrated poverty in Black neighborhoods
in the inner city . 300
High Quality Public Housing for
White Americans
Private real estate development stalled during the Great Depression due to the lack of available credit . 301 During the world wars, all available raw materials were directed towards military use and private housing construction
was banned . 302 By the end of World War II, these condi - tions created severe housing shortages for all Americans, regardless of race . 303 In response, the federal govern - ment built low-rise buildings for middle-class Americans that were scattered throughout the city, but did not sub- sidize the rent or maintenance . 304 Instead, tenants paid full market price and for the building’s maintenance,
so the quality of public housing was high . 305 Federal agencies funded public housing, which either barred
African Americans, or the housing available to African
Americans was segregated and in worse condition . 306
During World War I, the federal government-built hous-
ing for white workers in the war industries: 170,000
In 1937 , the federal government revised its strategy and created the U.S. Housing Authority (USHA), which gave federal money to local governments to build public housing. Although the USHA manual stated that government housing projects should not segregate what were previously integrated neighborhoods, it also warned local officials not to build housing for white families “in areas now occupied by Negroes.”
177
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
white workers and their families lived in 83 govern -
ment-built housing projects across 26 states . 307 The federal government did not allow Black workers to live
in this federally built housing and forced Black work - ers into overpopulated slums . 308 In 1933, the federal government created the Public Works Administration
(PWA), which cleared slums and built houses using its
“neighborhood composition rule” to require feder -
al housing projects to maintain the racial make-up of
the neighborhood . 309
All across the country, in cities like Detroit, Indianapolis, Toledo, New York, Birmingham, and Miami, the PWA
segregated Black residents from white residents either
by project or by concentrating African Americans into
high density, low-income neighborhoods . 310 Another
federal agency, the Tennessee Valley Authority, built 500 comfortable houses and leased them to its employees
and construction workers . 311 The federal government banned Black federal workers from the houses who lived
in low quality barracks instead . 312
In 1937 , the federal government revised its strategy
and created the U .S . Housing Authority (USHA), which gave federal money to local governments to build pub -
lic housing . 313 Although the USHA manual stated that government housing projects should not segregate
what were previously integrated neighborhoods, it also
warned local officials not to build housing for white
families “in areas now occupied by Negroes . ” 314
During World War II, the federal government-built
housing for white workers in the defense industry . 315 Black workers were either left to live in slums or in low - er quality segregated housing . 316
Low Quality Housing for African Americans
Beginning in the 1950s, the government began subsidiz - ing the rent in public housing and allowed only families making less than a certain amount to live in the build - ings . 317 The buildings collected lower maintenance fees as a result and the quality of public housing deterio - rated . 318 The federal government helped white families move out of the city and purchase single family homes
in the suburbs by subsidizing their mortgage . 319 Black families were prevented from moving into the suburbs
due to the racist federal housing policies and restrictive covenants, discussed in the section of this chapter on
redlining 320 and racially restrictive covenants . 321 The federal government began funding enormous, seg -
regated high rise projects, like the Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago; 322 at the same time, a dozen states, including California, required local city approval of public hous - ing projects . 323 In 1971, the Supreme Court ruled that this approval process did not violate the federal consti - tution, 324 so middle-class white communities rejected public housing projects . 325
By 1973, President Richard Nixon announced that
public housing projects were “monstrous, depressing
places—rundown, overcrowded, crime-ridden .” 326 In
1984, investigative reporters from the Dallas Morning
News visited federally-funded developments in 47 met -
ropolitan areas . 327 The reporters
found that 10 million public hous -
ing residents were almost always
segregated by race and that every
housing project where the residents
were mostly white was better main-
tained, and had decent facilities,
amenities, and services . 328
Although the Supreme Court of the
United States decided in Brown v.
Board of Education in 1954 that seg -
regation was unconstitutional, Berchmans Fitzpatrick,
general counsel of the federal housing agency at the
time, responded to the decision by saying that the de - cision did not apply to housing . 329 Civil rights activists tried to bring suits against government segregation in
public housing and the federal government announced
anti-discrimination policies in name only . In practice, it continued to segregate . 330
President John F . Kennedy tried to prohibit discrimina- tion in housing by issuing Executive Order 11063, but the order only covered less than three percent of the total housing available in the United States . 331 Finally, the fed- eral government, outlawed housing discrimination in
1964 with the passage of the Civil Rights Act, which was re-enforced by the Fair Housing Act in 1968 . 332
The Civil Rights Act and the Fair Housing Act did not
change the reality on the ground, as civil rights advo - cates continued to file lawsuits over decades alleging
that city housing authorities continued to discrimi -
nate in cities like Dallas, San Francisco, Yonkers, and In 1984, investigative reporters found that 10 million federally funded public housing residents in 47 states were almost always segregated by race and that every housing project where the residents were mostly white was better maintained, and had decent facilities, amenities, and services
178
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
Baltimore . 333 In opinion after opinion, federal courts recognized that federal and local government created
or maintained segregation . 334
Following the recession of the 1990s, the government
began to demolish these impoverished high rise public
housing projects as part of multimillion dollar rede -
velopment efforts, often specifically choosing projects where Black families lived . 335 In 2000, 48 percent of pub- lic housing residents were Black nationwide, but in cities like Birmingham, Detroit, Memphis, New Orleans, and
Washington D .C ., 99 percent of public housing residents were Black . 336 Cities where housing prices have risen the fastest have been the most aggressive in tearing down
public housing . 337
These redevelopments have result -
ed in mostly white, but sometimes
Black middle-class residents mov -
ing into and displacing low-income
Black neighborhoods . 338 These
government funded public hous -
ing demolitions not only displace
the Black residents in the demol -
ished buildings, but they speed up
the gentrification of the surrounding neighborhood,
and displace more Black residents . 339 Although schol - ars are unsure if these government demolitions cause
the neighborhood to gentrify, research has shown that
they are an important factor in the neighborhood’s
continued gentrification . 340
The redevelopments usually have fewer units of public
housing, so residents generally move to other low-in -
come neighborhoods . 341 This approach has produced
mixed results . 342 Although former residents report that they are more satisfied with the quality of their new
housing and the reduction in crime, their children
continue to attend racially and economically segregated schools, and their health and financial self-sufficiency reportedly did not improve . 343
California
Segregation in California of African Americans inten -
sified during World War II when African Americans
arrived to work in the war industries . Unlike on the
East Coast and in the Midwest, in California, because
the Black population in California had been so small,
there were no preset housing segregation patterns:
Federal and local governments created segregation from
a blank slate . 344
Carey McWilliams, who had been California’s housing
commissioner in the early years of World War II, later
wrote that “the federal government [had] in effect been planting the seeds of Jim Crow practices throughout the region under the guise of ‘respecting local attitudes .’” 345 In Northern California, one of the largest shipbuild -
ers in the country during World War II was located in
Richmond . 346 From 1940 to 1945, Richmond’s population increased from 24,000 to 100,000 with defense industry
workers . 347 Richmond’s Black population increased from 270 in 1940 to 14,000 in 1945 . 348
As with the rest of the country, the federal government paid for segregated housing to be built for defense work- ers during World War II . 349 Housing available only to white workers was more likely to be better constructed, permanent, and further inland . 350 The federal govern - ment issued low interest loans for white homeowners to
remodel and subdivide their houses, and leased spare
rooms for white workers to move in as tenants . 351
Black housing was close to the shipbuilding site, badly constructed, and there simply was not enough of it . 352 While white workers lived in rooms paid for by the fed - eral government, Black war workers lived in cardboard
shacks, barns, tents, or open fields . 353 By 1947 , half of the 26,000 Black residents of Richmond were living in
temporary housing . 354
Public Housing Residents (2000)
Nationwide Cities in the
Northeast & South*
*Birmingham, Detroit, Memphis, New Orleans and Washington D.C. 48%Black 99%Black
While white workers lived in rooms paid for by the federal government, Black war workers lived in cardboard shacks, barns, tents, or open fields. By 1947 , half of the 26,000 Black residents of Richmond were living in temporary housing.
179
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
The federal government then helped white families fi -
nance suburban homes and leave temporary apartments
near the shipyard . 355 For example, the federal govern - ment contracted with a private developer to build a new suburb called Rollingwood and forbade the developer
from selling any of Rollingwood’s 700 houses to African Americans . 356 In 1952, Wilbur Gary, a Black war veteran bought a house in Rollingwood, angering his white neigh- bors . 357 Three hundred white residents gathered in front of his house, shouted racial slurs, threw a brick through the window, and burned a cross on his front lawn . 358
Some Black workers bought land in unincorporated North
Richmond, but could not get construction loans because
unlike for white Americans, the federal government
refused to insure bank loans for African Americans . 359 Other Black families moved into the housing projects
that white families had left behind . 360 By 1950, more than three-quarters of Richmond’s Black population lived in
the housing projects built during the war . 361
In 1942, the United States Navy demanded that the San
Francisco Housing Authority segregate housing built
for the 14,000 workers and their families at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard . 362 The San Francisco Housing
Authority announced in 1942: “In the selection of ten - ants . . . [we shall] not insofar as possible enforce the commingling of races, but shall insofar as possible main- tain and preserve the same racial composition which
exists in the neighborhood where a project is located .” 363 San Francisco built five other segregated projects
during World War II, four for whites only . 364 Apartments earmarked for white workers only sat empty as Black
workers waited on long waiting lists . 365
One of the few integrated neighborhoods where African
Americans could live was the Western Addition, 366 which was torn down later as part of urban renewal, discussed above in the section on condemnation and eminent
domain . When the federal government sent Japanese
Americans living in the Western Addition to American
concentration internment camps, African Americans
moved in . 367
In 1952, the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People sued the San Francisco Housing
Authority for continuing to build whites only housing . 368 The head of the agency testified that the city agency’s intent was to “localize occupancy of Negroes” in the
Western Addition and ensure that no African Americans
would reside in projects inhabited by whites . 369 The NAACP won its legal case, but the city agency continued to build segregated housing in San Francisco . 370
In some areas in California, the demolition of public
housing occurred without replacement housing for dis -
placed African Americans . For example, in Richmond,
the city prioritized developments primarily occupied
by Black families in its demolition plans . 371 The city abandoned plans to build over 4,000 permanent pub -
lic housing units . 372 The demolition displaced 700 Black families from their homes in 1952 and only 16 percent of them could find a home in the private housing market . 373 By 1960, thousands of former public housing residents
lost their homes . 374
X . Redlining
Redlining refers to a federal and local governmen -
tal practice, acting together with private banks, to
systematically deny home loans to Black people . 375
Redlining was accomplished at the federal level with
three agencies: Federal Housing Administration,
Veterans Administration (VA), and the Home Owners'
Loan Corporation (HOLC) . 376 The FHA helped new
homeowners buy houses, 377 the VA helped veterans
(World War II and others), 378 and HOLC helped pre -
vent foreclosures as a result of the Great Depression for existing homeowners . 379
These three federal agencies helped millions of mostly
white Americans buy houses by insuring and subsidiz -
ing mortgages, while refusing the same opportunity to
African Americans . 380 Or, in the words of the federal agencies, exclusion was directed at “inharmonious ra -
cial group or nationality groups .” 381
With a federally insured mortgage, the federal gov -
ernment protects lenders, like banks, against losing
money . If the homeowner stops paying their mortgage,
the federal government would step in and pay the bank
African Americans received
of federal home loans
between 1934 and 1962 2%
180
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
the amount of the unpaid principal in the loan . 382 As a result, banks were far more willing and likely to issue an insured mortgage to a white applicant, than an un -
insured mortgage to a Black applicant . 383
Enriched with these mortgages, white Americans moved
out of America’s city centers, taking with them their mid- dle-class tax bases into the suburbs and leaving urban
poverty in its wake . 384 Unable to access the same mort - gages to reach the suburbs, African Americans remained
in the impoverished urban centers . 385
This practice continued legally until 1962, when President John F . Kennedy issued an executive order prohibiting
the use of federal funds to support racial discrimination in newly constructed housing . 386 Between 1934 and 1962, the federal government had issued $120 billion in home
loans, 98 percent of which went to white people . 387
Although redlining is no longer legal, its effects appear to endure . One study has found associations between
historically redlined neighborhoods, air pollution and
cancer, asthma, poor mental health, and people without
health insurance . 388 The same study also found that res- idents in certain historically redlined areas were close to twice as likely to have poor health when compared to areas that did not have redlining . 389
Home Owners' Loan Corporation
The Home Owners' Loan Corporation refinanced tens of
thousands of mortgages in danger of default or foreclo - sure and issued low-interest loans to help homeowners
recover homes that were already foreclosed . 390 Between July 1933 and June 1935, HOLC used
$3 billion to finance more than a
million mortgages . 391
HOLC examiners assessed real es -
tate values and mortgage lending
risks for 239 midsized cities be -
tween 1939 and 1945, and developed
“Residential Security Maps” for the
entire country . 392
These maps rated neighborhoods
from “ A,” for the best neighborhoods,
to “D,” the worst neighborhoods . 393
Grade “ A ” was shaded in green on
the maps and assigned to blocks
in neighborhoods that were new
and all white . 394 HOLC assigned
Grade “B,” shaded in blue, to stable,
outlying, Jewish and white work -
ing-class neighborhoods . 395 Grade “C” was for inner-city neighborhoods bordering mostly Black communities or
neighborhoods that already had a small Black population and shaded yellow . 396 Grade “D” was the worst catego - ry, and reserved for all-Black neighborhoods, even if it was middle class, and shaded in red . 397 This process was called “redlining .” 398
Historians debate the level of direct influence these
maps had on how banks made their decisions, 399 but
generally agree that redlining resulted in the devalua - tion of Black homes across the entire country, making it difficult for African Americans to buy, build, or renovate their homes . 400
Along with the 1939 Federal Housing Administration
Underwriting manual, the HOLC Residential Security
Maps cemented the federal government’s support of the
routine real estate industry practice of devaluing real estate owned by nonwhite property owners, 401 a practice that continues to this day . 402
Californian homeowner Paul Austin testified during
the October 13, 2021 Task Force meeting that a home
appraiser valued the property of he and his wife at just below $1 million, which was much less than they expect- ed because of significant improvements they had made
to their home . They asked a friend to pretend to be his wife, removed anything in their house that would in -
dicate their race, and hired a different appraiser . The new appraiser valued the property at just less than $1 .5 million, which was nearly half a million more than the
previous estimate . Austin also testified his grandparents migrated from the South to the Marin City area during
COURTESY OF DIGITAL SCHOLARSHIP LAB UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND A Homeowner’s Loan Corporation map of Los Angeles detailing A, B, C and D grade areas of the city. An “ A ” rating, shaded in green, was for the best neighborhoods that were new and all white. A “D” rating, shaded in red, was the worst category, and reserved for all-Black neighborhoods, even if it was middle class. This process was called “redlining.” (1939) 181
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
the 1940s to work in the shipyards, but were trapped in that area because of redlining . He also testified that his paternal grandparents secretly purchased land and built a home in Mill Valley because African Americans were
not allowed to buy property in the area .
Federal Housing Administration and
Veterans Administration
Congress created the Federal Housing Administration
in 1934 to insure bank mortgages for first time home -
owners . 403 Where the Home Owners' Loan Corporation
reinforced segregation by creating the Residential
Security Maps, the FHA issued the FHA Underwriting
Manual . 404 The 1936 Manual warned of the increased
risk that a homeowner would not pay their mortgage in
a neighborhood with “inharmonious racial groups . ” 405 The 1947 and 1958 versions of the FHA underwriting man- ual did not directly mention race, but instructed mortgage lenders to consider “physical and social attractiveness[]” and whether the families living in the neighborhoods
were “congenial” when evaluating the
credit risk . 406 State-regulated insur -
ance companies, like the Equitable
Life Insurance Company and the
Prudential Life Insurance Company,
also declared that their policy was
to not issue mortgages to whites in
integrated neighborhoods . 407
Because the FHA refused to insure
mortgages for African Americans,
banks shouldered additional risk if they loaned to Black families rather than white families, so they essentially did not do so . 408 Between 1935 and 1950, the FHA ad - ministered 2,761,000 home mortgages and only about
50,000 were made available to nonwhite Americans . 409 In addition to encouraging banks to discriminate
against African Americans in the credit assessment
process, author Richard Rothstein argues that the FHA
made its biggest impact when it financed the devel -
opment of entire suburbs . 410 When the FHA reviewed
plans for suburban development
projects it demanded that the real
estate developer not sell houses to
African Americans and sometimes
withheld approval of the projects if
Black families lived in nearby neigh-
borhoods . 411 Once the real estate
developer built the housing devel -
opment to the federal government’s
specifications, including a prohi -
bition on selling to Black families,
qualified white buyers did not need
to have their new house appraised
for the federal government to guar-
antee their mortgages . 412 Without
FHA or Veterans Administration
financing, developers built inferior neighborhoods with- out community facilities like parks and playgrounds . 413 Further discussion of the health impact of a lack of green space is discussed in Chapter 7 on the environment .
Because African Americans could not access mortgag -
es, many houses in these neighborhoods were rental
properties instead . Black families were deprived of this opportunity to build wealth . 414 A 1967 study showed that out of 400,000 housing units in FHA-insured subdivi -
sions, only 3 .3 percent had been sold to Black families . 415 After World War II, Congress passed the Servicemen's
Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the
GI Bill, offering education, small business and unem -
ployment benefits to military veterans . The GI Bill also authorized the VA to insure mortgages for veterans as
the FHA did for civilians . It adopted FHA housing poli - cies, and VA appraisers relied on the FHA ’s Underwriting Manual . 416 The VA guaranteed approximately five million When the FHA reviewed plans for suburban development projects it demanded that the real estate developer not sell houses to African Americans and sometimes withheld approval of the projects if Black families lived in nearby neighborhoods.
The 1947 and 1958 versions of the FHA underwriting manual did not directly mention race, but instructed mortgage lenders to consider “physical and social attractiveness[]” and whether the families living in the neighborhoods were “congenial” when evaluating the credit risk. State-regulated insurance companies, like the Equitable Life Insurance Company and the Prudential Life Insurance Company, also declared that their policy was to not issue mortgages to whites in integrated neighborhoods.
182
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
mortgages nationally . 417 By 1950, the FHA and VA togeth- er were insuring half of all new mortgages nationwide . 418 With Federal government approval, white veterans often
did not need a down payment to buy a home . 419 Although the GI Bill itself did not contain “a single loophole for dif- ferent treatment of white and [B]lack veterans[,]” reality was very different . 420 The approval of GI Bill benefits for each individual application was dependent in the South
on the almost entirely white employees working at local VA centers, local banks, or public and private schools . 421 As a Black veteran in Texas wrote to the NAACP: “NO
NEGRO VETERAN is eligible for a loan .” 422 The VA refused to keep racial records . 423
An Ebony survey of 13 cities in Mississippi showed that by mid-1947 , only two of the 3,229 VA-guaranteed loans went to Black veterans . 424 In 1950, of the almost 70,000 VA mortgages issued in the New York-New Jersey area,
“nonwhites” received less than 100 . 425 Many Black World War II veterans never applied for GI Bill guaranteed
mortgages because they knew that they would not be
approved because of race . 426
California
The Home Owners' Loan Corporation maps described
many Californian neighborhoods in racially discrimi -
natory terms . In Berkeley, the HOLC characterized an
area north of the University of California, Berkeley "as High Yellow [C], but for infiltration of Orientals and
gradual infiltration of Negroes from south to north . " 427 In Pasadena: “This area is favorably located but is detri - mentally affected by 10 owner occupant Negro families…
Although the Negreos [sic] are said to be of the better class their presence has caused a wave of selling in the area and it seems inevitable that ownership and proper - ty values will drift to lower levels… The area is accorded a ‘high red’ solely on account of racial hazards . Otherwise a medial yellow grade would have been assigned . ” 428 In Oakland: “Detrimental Influences: Predominance of
Negroes and Orientals . Also mixed classes of wage earn- ers and colored professional people . ” 429 In San Diego:
There were “servant’s areas” of La Jolla and several areas “restricted to the Caucasian race .” 430
Accordingly, many neighborhoods financed by the fed -
eral government were for white people only: Westlake
in Daly City, south of San Francisco; Lakewood, south of Los Angeles; Westchester, south of Los Angeles and de - veloped by Kaiser Community Homes; Panorama City,
in the San Fernando Valley; and the “Sunkist Gardens”
development in Southeast Los Angeles . 431
In Milpitas, the Federal Housing Administration ap -
proved subdivision plans, and real estate developers
built homes that Black workers could not buy due to
the restrictions demanded by the FHA, so Black families were forced to move to a segregated neighborhood or
live in nearby Richmond . 432 In Ladera, a neighborhood next to Stanford University, the FHA refused to finance the construction of a co-op suburb with Black mem -
bers . 433 Without the government insuring its mortgages, the co-op could not find financing to build their homes, so they gave up, and the land was sold to a private de - veloper . 434 Shortly after, the FHA approved the private developer’s plans, which contained a guarantee that no
homes would be sold to Black families . 435
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
<1% of Federal Housing
Administration loans
went to Black people in Northern
California from 1946 – 1960
A Homeowner’s Loan Corporation redlining map of Oakland in 1937 detailing A, B, C and D grade areas of the city. (1937)
COURTESY OF DIGITAL SCHOLARSHIP LAB UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND 183
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
In Northern California, from 1946 to 1960, 350,000 new
homes were built with support from the FHA, but fewer
than 100 of these homes went to Black people . 436
Not only did federal agencies refused to insure mort -
gages to African Americans, they also refused mortgages to white Americans who attempted
to live alongside African Americans .
In 1954, a resident of the white only
neighborhood of East Palo Alto
sold his house to a Black family . 437
This sparked a phenomenon called
blockbusting, in which local real
estate agents exploited racial fears
and manipulated white residents to
sell their houses at a low price, then
reselling the houses at a higher price to Black families . 438 As white residents fled the neighborhood, other white
homeowners became desperate to sell their houses at
even lower prices . 439
A 1970 report concluded that the average markup Black
families paid in blockbusted neighborhoods was 80 to
100 percent higher than neighborhoods not under -
going racial change . 440 In response to blockbusting in East Palo Alto, the California real estate commissioner stated that the commission did not regulate such “un -
ethical practices .” 441 FHA and Veterans Administration policies discouraged white residents from moving into
neighborhoods in the process of being integrated like
East Palo Alto at the time, since the government did not insure mortgages for white families in integrated neigh - borhoods where Black families lived . 442 Within six years, the population of East Palo Alto was 82 percent Black,
and housing conditions had deteriorated markedly . 443 In another example in 1958, a Black San Francisco
schoolteacher named Alfred Simmons rented a house
with a FHA-guaranteed mortgage from a fellow white
schoolteacher in the Elmwood district of Berkeley . 444 The Berkeley police chief requested that the Federal
Bureau of Investigation investigate how Mr . Simmons
came to live in an all-white community, and the FBI re - ferred the case to the U .S . Attorney . 445 The FHA advised the white homeowner that because he rented his house
to a Black colleague, any future application from him
“will be rejected on the basis of an Unsatisfactory Risk Determination made by this office on April 30, 1959 . ” 446 XI . Racially Restrictive Covenants
Racially restrictive covenants are legally binding con - tracts, usually written into the deed, that prohibit
nonwhite people from living on a property or in a neigh- borhood . 447 For example, a deed in 2010, in Fairhaven, Massachusetts included the following clause, introduced in 1946: “The said land shall not be sold, leased or rented to any person other than of the Caucasian race or to any entity of which any person other than that of said race shall be a member, stockholder, officer or director .” 448 By helping preserve segregation and a system of racial
hierarchy, such covenants are yet another example of
the enduring effects of slavery .
Racially restrictive covenants began
appearing in the late nineteenth cen-
tury and were first directed against
Chinese and Punjabi residents in
California . 449 By 1900, developers be-
gan inserting them into the deeds of
homes built in new subdivisions all
across the country . 450 Minneapolis,
Minnesota had racially restrictive
covenants as early as 1910 and late as
1955 . 451 Further, between 1923 and 1924, real estate boards in Milwaukee, Detroit, Kansas City, Los Angeles, and oth- er cities prohibited their realtors from selling or renting property in white neighborhoods to African Americans . 452 Between 1923 and 1924, real estate boards in Milwaukee, Detroit, Kansas City, Los Angeles, and other cities prohibited their realtors from selling or renting property in white neighborhoods to African Americans.
The FHA advised the white homeowner that because he rented his house to a Black colleague, any future application from him “will be rejected on the basis of an Unsatisfactory Risk Determination made by this office on April 30, 1959.”
184
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
In 1917 , racial zoning, discussed earlier in this chapter, was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, 453 but the Supreme Court declared that racially restrictive covenants did not violate the constitution in 1926 . 454 The Supreme Court reasoned that the covenant was
a contract between private individuals not subject to
state control . 455
Government officials began promoting racially restric - tive covenants as an alternative, constitutional way to maintain segregation . 456 President Herbert Hoover
opened the President’s Conference on Home Building
and Home Ownership by declaring that single-family
homes were “expressions of racial longing” and “[t]hat
our people should live in their own homes is a sentiment deep in the heart of our race . ” 457 Conference materials then recommended that all new neighborhoods include
“appropriate restrictions,” such as barring the sale of homes to African Americans . 458
Federal officials also recommended homeowners form
“‘[r]estricted residential districts’ [which] may serve as protection against persons with whom your family won’t
care to associate, provided the restrictions are enforced and are not merely temporary .” 459 These racially restric- tive districts appeared soon afterwards and functioned
like bylaws in a neighborhood association and a neigh - bor could sue to evict a Black family that bought a house in the neighborhood . 460
Scholars have found that wealthy white communities
used restrictive covenants, while white working class
communities used a combination of violence and cov -
enants to keep African Americans from moving into
their neighborhoods . 461
Simultaneously, government actors and real es -
tate agents often used different mechanisms to
segregate a neighborhood . The 1936 Federal Housing
Administration Underwriting Manual stated that zoning
regulations alone are not enough “to assure a homoge -
neous and harmonious neighborhood… . Recorded deed
restrictions should strengthen and supplement zoning
ordinances… Recommended restrictions include . . . [p] rohibition of the occupancy of properties except by the race for which they are intended [and a]ppropriate pro - visions for enforcement .” 462 The 1938 FHA Underwriting Manual stated clearly: “If a neighborhood is to retain
stability, it is necessary that properties shall continue to be occupied by the same social and racial classes . ” 463 The Veterans Administration also recommended and
frequently demanded that racial covenants be added
into the deeds of the mortgages it sponsored . 464
As a result, racially restrictive covenants appeared all over the country . By 1940, according to news reports
quoted in the 1973 U .S . Commission on Civil Rights
Report, 80 percent of homes in Chicago and Los Angeles
contained restrictive covenants barring Black families . 465 A survey of 300 developments built between 1935 and
1947 in the suburbs of New York City found that 56 per - cent of the 300 developments and 85 percent of larger
subdivisions had racially restrictive covenants . 466
The University of Chicago subsidized the home own -
ers’ associations surrounding its campus . From 1933 to 1947 , it spent $100,000 on legal services to defend racially restrictive covenants and evict African Americans who
moved into the neighborhood . 467
All over the country, white neighbors sued their Black
neighbors to prevent them from moving into or to evict
them from their legally purchased homes . 468 In 1942, the Oklahoma Supreme Court not only declared that
the property purchased by a Black buyer was void due
to a racial covenant, but it also ordered the Black buy - er to pay for the court costs and attorney’s fees of the white neighbor who sued . 469 In Westlake in Daly City, California, the total fine of $16,000 for selling to a Black family was greater than the typical home sale price . 470 In 1948, the Supreme Court reversed course from its 1926 decision and held that although the government had no
control over whether a racially restrictive covenant can be added to a deed, it is unconstitutional for American courts to recognize and enforce the covenants . 471
Racially restrictive covenants were so widespread by
then that three of the Supreme Court justices recused
themselves from the case because they owned houses
covered by racially restrictive covenants . 472
Two weeks after the Court announced its decision,
FHA commissioner Franklin D . Richards stated that the decision would “in no way affect the programs of this
agency,” which would make “no change in our basic
concepts or procedures . ” 473 In 1952, the FHA commis - sioner stated that “it was not the purpose of [the FHA] to By 1940 80% of homes
in Los Angeles contained restrictive
covenants barring Black families
185
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
forbid segregation or to deny the benefits of the National Housing Act to persons who might be unwilling to dis -
regard race, color, or creed in the selection of their
purchasers or tenants .” 474
Although racially restrictive covenants were de -
clared unconstitutional in 1948, their popularity
continued for decades, 475 and racially homogenous
neighborhoods continued after these covenants ceased
to be enforced . 476 John F . Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and George W . Bush all lived in neighborhoods or homes
with racially restrictive covenants . 477 The home that George W . Bush bought in 2008 was located where the
neighborhood association enforced a racially restric -
tive covenant until 2000 . 478
In Myers Park, a neighborhood in Charlotte, North
Carolina, the housing association appeared to be en -
forcing its racially restrictive covenant in 2010, when it added the covenant to its website . 479
California
Racially restrictive covenants and
they were widely used through -
out the state . 480 Like the rest of
the country, although racially re -
strictive covenants were private
contracts, they worked in conjunc -
tion with federal policy to devalue
Black property and prevent African
Americans from accessing home loans . The Home
Owners' Loan Corporation maps for Pasadena deval -
ued a neighborhood because its restrictive covenants
had expired, potentially allowing African Americans to
move in: “This district was originally much smaller but constant infiltration into other sections as deed restric - tions expired has create[d] [sic] a real menace which
is greatly concerning property owners of Pasadena
and Altadena .” 481
In southern California, after its founding in 1903, the Los Angeles Realty Board campaigned to attach racially re - strictive land covenants on as many new developments
as possible . 482 Paul R . Williams, a prominent Black Los Angeles architect who designed houses for Frank
Sinatra, Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, and Cary Grant, could not legally live in the neighborhoods he designed due
to restrictive covenants . 483 Williams taught himself to draw upside down because his white clients were un -
comfortable sitting next to him and toured construction sites with hands clasped behind his back to avoid the
situation where someone would refuse to shake a Black
man’s hand . 484
From 1937 to 1948, more than 100 lawsuits attempt -
ed to enforce covenants and evict Black families from
their homes in Los Angeles . 485 In one 1947 case, a Black homeowner refused to leave the home he bought in vi -
olation of a covenant and he was jailed . 486 In Whittier, a Los Angeles suburb, the Quaker-affiliated Whittier
College participated in a restrictive covenant applied
to its neighborhood . 487
In 1943, the city attorney of Culver City, an all-white suburb of Los Angeles, told a meeting of air raid war - dens that when they went door to door to make sure
families turned off the lights to avoid helping Japanese bombers find targets to also circulate documents in
which homeowners promised not to sell or rent to
African Americans . 488
In 2021, AB 1466 was enacted to require county recorders to identify and redact racially restrictive covenants from California real estate records . 489
XII . Racial Terrorism
Nationally
As discussed in Chapter 3, Racial Terror, white
Americans used racial terror and vigilante violence to
prevent African Americans from moving into white
neighborhoods . The police often did not investigate
or failed to arrest the perpetrators when crosses were
burned on lawns, homes were bombed, and Black
homeowners were murdered . 490
John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush all lived in neighborhoods or homes with racially restrictive covenants. The home that George W. Bush bought in 2008 was located where the neighborhood association enforced a racially restrictive covenant until 2000.
186
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
California
Like elsewhere in the country, white Californians used
violence to enforce the racial hierarchy created during slavery by preventing African Americans from moving
into desirable white neighborhoods . 491 In fact, violent incidents in California rose in the 1950s and 1960s, after courts declared restrictive covenants unenforceable . 492 Ku Klux Klan terror and violence reached a peak in the
Los Angeles area in the spring of 1946 . 493 Although KKK meetings were banned in California in May 1946 after
the murder of the Short family who had been living in
Fontana, California, as discussed in Chapter 3, Racial
Terror, the ban had little to no effect because no one en- forced it . 494 Of the 27 KKK actions (e .g ., cross-burnings, fires, and threatening letters and phone calls) docu -
mented in Los Angeles in 1946, more than half occurred
after the issuance of the ban . 495 In a span of two weeks in May 1946, there were four separate actions, ranging
from cross-burnings to severe physical beatings . 496 One was targeted at a Black family that lived in an all-white neighborhood, and the others were targeted at other in- dividuals who advocated against restrictive covenants . 497 Law enforcement and the mayor shrugged off the vi -
olence as “prank[s] .” 498 When concerned residents and members of social justice organizations approached the
mayor to address the incidents, the mayor accused them
of prejudice against the KKK . 499
Los Angeles continued to be the epicenter of the vi -
olence in California, as Black residents who moved
into white neighborhoods were met with cross-burn -
ings, bombings, rock throwing, graffiti, and other acts of violence . 500 Of the over 100 incidents of move-in bombings and vandalism that occurred in Los Angeles
between 1950 and 1965, only one led to an arrest
and prosecution . 501
Los Angeles was not the only area where the KKK at -
tacked Black homeowners . In 1946, for instance, a
home built by a Black war veteran was burned down in
Redwood City after threats and move-out demands . 502
In 1952, in a white Bay Area neighborhood, a Black family became the target of death threats, violence, and in -
timidation by white residents after the family refused
a buyout of their home . 503 A KKK cross was placed on their lawn and a 300 to 400 person mob stoned their
home and shouted threats . 504 Though the action hap - pened in front of law enforcement, officers refused to
make any arrests . 505 Even when the Governor, Attorney General, and local district attorney ordered the city
police and county sheriff to provide the family with pro- tection, protests and harassment continued for months
without any arrests . 506 And in the 1950s, the weekend home of a San Francisco NAACP leader was mysteri -
ously burned down . 507 The violence and subsequent
silence surrounding the crimes committed against
Black Californians demonstrates how white Californians
viewed Black presence and homeownership as a threat
to white dominance . 508
XIII . Housing Segregation Today
Housing segregation and its effects have never been
eliminated in the United States . 509 The racist housing policies and practices of the federal, state, and local gov- ernments have amplified private action and continue to
shape the American landscape today . 510
Although residential segregation between Black and
white Americans in the United States peaked between
1960 and 1970, 511 America is about as segregated today for African Americans as it was in 1940 . 512 By contrast, in 2010, the typical white person in a metropolitan region lived in a neighborhood that was 75 percent white . 513 Even though white areas have become less solidly white
since 1980, they have not become significantly more
Black . 514 Today, 90 percent of African Americans live in cities, 515 and 41 percent of the Black population of American metro areas live in city neighborhoods that
are majority Black . 516
Los Angeles, CA., William Bailey and Roger Duncan look at the wreckage in Bailey’s living room after a bomb exploded in the house. Duncan’s house, directly across the street, was also bombed at the same time and a note was left threatening all the Black families on the street if they didn’t move out. (1952)
COURTESY OF LOS ANGELES DAIL Y NEWS/UCLA LIBRARY DIGITAL COLLECTIONS 187
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
Housing segregation is more intractable than other
forms of segregation and discrimination . 517 Moving
from an urban apartment to a suburban single family
home is more difficult than registering to vote, eating at a restaurant, or even being bussed to a nearby school, and requires potentially generations of effort . 518 The Fair Housing Act of 1968 prohibited future discrimina - tion, but did not fix the structures put in place by 100 years of discriminatory government policies . 519 Richard Rothstein argues that residential desegregation requires a massive effort of social engineering . 520
No such massive effort has occurred . Instead, the
Supreme Court has made private lawsuits fighting
housing discrimination more difficult, 521 and housing discrimination persists in new and different ways . 522 Policies that may not seem to discriminate at first glance have reinforced the structures put in place by past racist government actions . 523
The Supreme Court
In 1977 , the Supreme Court upheld a city’s denial of re - quest to rezone a tract of land in a mostly white suburb of Chicago, which banned the construction of apart -
ment buildings anywhere except next to a commercial
area . 524 The neighborhood in question had been zoned for single family houses without change since 1959 . 525 This zoning ordinance had a “disproportionate impact
on blacks” by effectively preventing lower income res - idents, who were more likely to be Black as compared
to other Chicago area residents, from moving into
the neighborhood . 526
Even though the zoning decision meeting included
comments from the public about the undesirability of
rezoning so as to allow apartments that would “probably be racially integrated,” the Supreme Court decided that the city council members themselves had no discrimi -
natory intent when it voted for the zoning ordinance . 527 With Arlington Heights and the cases that followed, the Supreme Court essentially announced a rule that in
order to prove that a law, regulation, or practice is un - constitutional, plaintiffs must prove that the decision makers intended to discriminate . 528
This line of Supreme Court cases has made proving cur - rent housing discrimination and erasure of the effects
of old government policies of housing segregation very
difficult . 529 In other words, it very difficult to bring a suc- cessful housing discrimination lawsuit .
Continued Housing Discrimination
Mortgage and housing discrimination continues in many
forms today . Researchers continue to find that Black res- idents are charged higher prices for identical units in the same neighborhood as white
residents . 530 Lenders use preda -
tory lending practices more often
in minority neighborhoods than
white neighborhoods . 531 Indeed,
homeowners in segregated Black
neighborhoods are more likely to
have subprime mortgages . 532
Before 2008, Black and Latino borrowers were four times more likely to receive a more expensive mortgage than
white borrowers, a practice called reverse redlining . 533 Big banks across the country used reverse redlining to
target communities of color with higher interest rates
and fees . 534 Before 2008, banks specifically targeted Black and Hispanic homeowners to advertise toxic subprime
mortgages and other predatory practices that triggered
the Great Recession . 535 Black homeowners received tox- ic subprime mortgages at three times the rate of white
mortgage lendees . 536
In Memphis, employees of Wells Fargo Bank referred
to these loans as “ghetto loans,” and bank supervisors
targeted Black zip codes because they believed that res - idents “weren’t savvy enough .” 537 According to the U .S .
Department of Justice in 2010, the more segregated a
community, the more likely lenders targeted the home -
owners for toxic loans, and the more likely the home
was foreclosed . 538
Before 2008, compared to whites,
Black and Latino borrowers were
to receive a more
expensive mortgage 4x
MORE LIKEL Y
America is more segregated today for African Americans than it was in 1940.
188
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
As a result, Black and Latino homeowners, were hit par - ticularly hard by the 2008 crisis . 539 From 2001 to 2019, the rate of Black homeownership declined five times as
much as the homeownership rate for white families, 540 erasing all the gains made since the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968 . 541 Homes in Black neighborhoods were more likely to be foreclosed than homes in white
neighborhoods . 542 By 2011, a quarter of Black home - owners had either lost their homes to foreclosure or
were “seriously delinquent” on their mortgages . 543
In settling a lawsuit against the Countrywide mortgage
company, the federal Secretary of Housing and Urban
Development said that due to Countrywide’s discrim -
inatory practices, “[f]rom Jamaica, Queens, New York,
to Oakland, California, strong,
middle-class African American
neighborhoods saw nearly two de -
cades of gains reversed in a matter
of not years—but months . ” 544
Despite multiple lawsuits brought
by the U .S . Department of Justice 545
and by cities like Baltimore, 546
Memphis, 547 and Cleveland, 548 the
mortgage industry continues to dis-
criminate against Black home buyers .
From July 2019 to June 2020, Black
mortgage applicants were 2 .5 times more likely than
white applicants to be rejected for mortgages . 549 Studies continue to show that Black mortgage borrowers pay
more in financing fees, 550 mortgage insurance, 551 and property taxes . 552
Compared to white buyers, Black home buyers go into
more debt for homes that are valued less . 553 Black home- owners who apply to refinance their homes are denied
over 30 percent of the time, compared to 17 percent
of white homeowners . 554 This makes it more difficult for Black homeowners to make necessary repairs to
their homes and to move out of dilapidated homes . 555 These trends have continued even as mortgage lend -
ing has become more automated and internet based in
recent years . 556
California
California remains racially segregated, 557 although
Black-white segregation has decreased since 1980 in
cities like Los Angeles, Oakland, and Riverside . 558
There is also evidence that lenders discriminate against African Americans in California . For example, one study found that in 2019, despite making up 5 .5 percent of the state’s population, Black Californians received only 3 .28 percent of home purchase loans . 559 The magnitude of this disparity varies across metro areas in the state . 560 Another study found that in 2013, Black Californians
made up 2 .7 percent of all home mortgage loan appli -
cants, received 2 .4 percent of all home mortgage loans originated, and received 1 .7 percent of all home mort - gage loan dollars in the state . 561
XIV . Effects
Once federal, state, and local governments, along with
private actors, segregated the American landscape, they directed resources to white neighborhoods, and neglect- ed Black neighborhoods . In 1967 , President Lyndon B .
Johnson appointed the National Advisory Commission
on Civil Disorders to investigate the causes of the racial violence in the summer of 1967 . 562 The report concluded that: “[S]egregation and poverty have created in the ra - cial ghetto a destructive environment totally unknown
to most white Americans . ” 563 The subsequent chapters From July 2019 to June 2020, compared to
whites applicants, Black applicants were
to be rejected
for mortgages 2.5x
MORE LIKEL Y
Before 2008, banks specifically targeted Black and Hispanic homeowners to advertise toxic subprime mortgages that triggered the Great Recession. In Memphis, employees of Wells Fargo Bank referred to these loans as “ghetto loans[,]” and bank supervisors targeted Black zip codes because they believed that residents “weren’t savvy enough[.]”
189
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
on environment and infrastructure, education, health,
labor, and wealth will discuss these persisting effects of slavery in detail .
Segregated Black communities have less access to pub -
lic transit and must deal with longer commute times,
which contributes to higher rates of unemployment
among African Americans . 564 In the past, local govern - ments delayed providing public services like water and
sewage at first . 565 Once the services
were eventually provided to Black
neighborhoods, they were provided
less often . 566 Today, many all-black
neighborhoods depend on aging
water and sewage infrastructure
and unreliable supplies . 567 Local
governments did not invest as much
in road and street services in black neighborhoods, and the roads are less safe for pedestrians and cyclists . 568 Black communities pay more for energy because they
live in older, energy-inefficient homes . 569 Oil and gas ex- tractions are more likely to be in Black neighborhoods, leading to environmental pollution . 570 Segregated black neighborhoods are less likely to have access to parks
and greenspace, and are less likely to have tree cover . 571 Tree cover cools neighborhoods during the summer
and absorbs air pollution . Higher temperatures during the summer results in more heat related illnesses and
exposure to more air pollution results in respirato -
ry illness, both which occur more often in segregated
neighborhoods . 572 A lack of greenspace also deprives Black communities, and especially poor Black commu -
nities, of the benefits of nature, especially beneficial for child development . 573
Segregation has concentrated poverty in Black and
Latino neighborhoods in America, and is associated
with worse outcomes in almost every aspect of life .
Neighborhood poverty rates are three times high -
er in segregated communities of color than in white
neighborhoods . 574 Segregation is associated with low - er high school graduation, lower earnings, and single
motherhood among African Americans . 575 Residents of segregated neighborhoods have more illnesses and die
younger . 576 Residential segregation is a major contribut - ing factor to the Black and white wealth gap, as discussed in Chapter 13 on wealth . Homes in segregated black
neighborhoods tends to be older, smaller, and on more
densely settled lots than in disproportionately white
neighborhoods . 577 According to U .S . Census Bureau, the median home value in majority Black neighborhoods
is $149,217 , while the median home value in neighbor - hoods that are less than one percent Black is $306,511 . 578 School districts are funded by local tax bases, which are determined by home values, so Black and Latino segre -
gated local districts receive less funds, fewer resources, and less experienced teachers than white school dis -
tricts . Further, as Joseph Gibbons testified during the December 7 , 2021 Task Force meeting, gentrification
has many negative effects on African Americans beyond
the obvious displacement of African Americans, such as
higher rates of stress and other adverse health effects . 579 Some researchers have argued that segregation plays an
important role in the racial disparity among unhoused
individuals . 580 Throughout American history, significant numbers of African Americans have been unhoused, 581
although specific data based on race is not always avail - able . 582 The story of African Americans experiencing homelessness has often been left out, underreported,
or misrepresented . 583
Many enslaved people seeking freedom became un -
housed after escaping bondage . 584 After the Civil War, close to four million African Americans were un -
housed . 585 African Americans were hit the hardest
during the Great Depression, were excluded from many
private agencies offering aid and the benefits of the
New Deal, and many became unhoused . 586 During the
Post World War II period, between nine to 40 percent
of Skid Row residents were Black men, depending on
the city . 587 However, the number of African Americans who have been unhoused is relatively small when con -
sidering the number of impoverished or unemployed
African Americans . 588 Scholars have attributed this to the robust family and neighborhood support systems
of Black communities . 589
In the last 50 years, the number of Black unhoused in - dividuals has risen . 590 African Americans now make up 39 percent of people experiencing homelessness and
53 percent of families experiencing homelessness with
children . 591 Scholars have attributed this to the com - pounding harms of urban renewal, 592 loss of blue collar jobs, 593 the crack cocaine epidemic, 594 historical and continued housing discrimination, 595 mass incarcera - tion, 596 lack of access to health insurance and mental health services, 597 and lack of affordable housing . 598 In the last decade, Black Californians were less likely to own a home than in the 1960s, when housing discrimination was legal. 190
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
Due to the effects of government segregation policy,
African Americans earn less and are more likely to be
renters than white Americans, making them more vul -
nerable to homelessness . 599 This risk of homelessness is amplified by the fact that Black households are more
likely than white households to be extremely low-in -
come renters . 600 Because government policies have
historically crippled the ability of Black households to purchase houses, they are more likely to be renters than white households . 601 One study found that Black rent - ers continue to pay more than white renters for similar housing in similar neighborhoods . 602
Because Black families are more likely to be impover -
ished, the housing shortage is more likely to affect Black households . 603 In the country, there are only 37 rental homes for every 100 extremely low-income renter house-
holds, defined as households with incomes at or below
the poverty level or 30 percent of the median income of the geographic area . 604 Twenty percent of Black house - holds are extremely low-income renters, compared with
six percent of white non-Hispanic households . 605
Black families are more likely to be rent burdened,
which is generally defined as a household that spends
more than 30 percent of pre-tax income on rent . 606 A majority of Black renter families in 2019 still spent over 30 percent of their income on rent . 607
California
State and local urban renewal, highway construction,
and gentrification have destroyed Black communities
throughout the state . In the 1960s, vibrant communities like San Francisco’s Fillmore district and Los Angeles’s Sugar Hill have been reduced to rubble or an eight lane highway . Today, segregated neighborhoods in California are often populated by a mix of
Black and Hispanic residents, and
are more vulnerable to be displaced
by gentrification . 608
One study found that five of the 20
most rapidly gentrifying cities from
2013 to 2017 were in California: San
Francisco-Oakland (1), San Jose (8),
Sacramento (10), San Diego (14),
and Los Angeles (15) . 609 In many California cities today, gentrification (characterized by economic and demo -
graphic shifts in historically disinvested neighborhoods) is concentrated in formerly redlined neighborhoods . 610 Close to 90 percent of currently gentrifying areas in San Francisco were formerly redlined or rated “definitely
declining” by the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation, as
were 83 percent of gentrifying areas in the East Bay and 87 percent of gentrifying areas in San Jose . 611 According to the U .S . census, in the 1970s, 10 percent of San
Francisco’s population identified as Black, compared to five percent today . 612
Darrell Owens testified during the December 7 , 2021
Task Force meeting that census data shows that African
Americans have been displaced from California for
decades . 613 In particular and more recently, Blacks are leaving Alameda County and Los Angeles County . 614 In addition to the residents who leave the state altogether, many are moving inland and many Black Californians
are moving away from the more costly coastal cities in
search of affordable housing . 615 For example, located just south of Sacramento, Elk Grove has seen a 5,100 per -
cent increase in Black residents since 1990 . 616 Similarly, as the population of Black residents plunged 45 percent in Compton, 43 percent in San Francisco, and 40 per -
cent in Oakland, the San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta,
Southern California’s Inland Empire, and the Central
Valley have all seen increases in their Black population . 617 Overall, the Black population in California is projected to increase almost 40 percent between 1999 and 2040,
which is slower than the projected total population in - crease for the state of 72 percent . 618
In writing about the gentrification of her historically Black neighborhood of Inglewood in Los Angeles, Erin
Aubry Kaplan says, “Black presence has value — in ev -
ery sense of the word, and on its own terms . That value should make the casual displacement of Black people
untenable, even immoral .” 619
California has more individuals experiencing home -
lessness than any other state in the country . 620 Nearly a quarter of all unhoused Americans live in California . 621 Black Californians experiencing homelessness is a more
acute crisis than in the rest of the country . Black people account for 6 .5 percent of Californians but nearly 40
percent of the state’s unhoused individuals . 622 Nationally, Black people account for 13 .4 percent of the population and are 39 .8 percent of the unhoused population . 623
6% 40%
BLACK CALIFORNIANS
POPULATION
BLACK CALIFORNIANS
UNHOUSED POPULATION
191
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
In addition to experiencing homelessness, as with the
rest of the country, Black Californians are more likely to be renters than white Californians . 624 By 2019, Black Californians’ homeownership rate was less than in the
1960s, when certain forms of housing discrimination was legal . 625 The Black homeownership rate in California has dropped almost 10 percent since 2004 and has not recov- ered . 626 Sixty-eight percent of white Californians own a home, compared with 41 percent of Black Californians . 627 One study shows that Proposition 13, which limits proper- ty taxes for homeowners by essentially freezing property tax assessment at the last date of purchase, has benefit - ed white homeowners more than Black homeowners
in California . 628 Fifty-eight percent of the state’s Black renters spent more than 30 percent of their household
income on rent . 629 In certain neighborhoods like South Los Angeles, over half of Black households pay more than 50 percent of their income on rent . 630
As a likely result, despite constituting six percent of the state’s population, Black Californians comprise near -
ly 40 percent of unhoused Californians . As Brandon
Greene testified during the December 7 , 2021 Task Force meeting, African Americans are disproportionately rep-
resented among the unhoused population throughout
California . 631 Further, according to Greene, anti-homeless laws exclude African Americans from public spaces—like
legal segregation laws—by empowering police to remove
unhoused individuals from public spaces . 632
As with the rest of the country, segregated neighbor -
hoods have fewer access to public transportation by
design . 633 For example, the Bay Area Rapid Transit
(BART) trains run for almost three miles without stop - ping through Oakland’s San Antonio neighborhood,
the most racially diverse and densest part of the Bay
Area . 634 In contrast, Walnut Creek and Pleasant Hill are less than half as dense in comparison, but the BART
stations are only 1 .75 miles apart . 635 The city designed the BART in the late 1960s to carry white commuters
from the suburbs to their urban jobs, bypassing poor
Black neighborhoods . 636
Segregated communities have less greenspace and are
more polluted . Fifty-two percent of Black Californians live in areas deprived of nature, compared to 36 per -
cent of white Californians . 637 Their streets and sidewalks are more dangerous . 638 Segregated neighborhoods in
California are more impoverished 639
and the homes are undervalued .
The typical Californian Black-
owned home is worth 86 percent as
much as the typical U .S . home, while
the typical white-owned home is
worth 108 percent as much as the
typical U .S . home . 640 And a study has
found that in the Los Angeles-Long
Beach-Anaheim and San Francisco-
Oakland-Hayward metropolitan
areas, houses in majority Black neighborhoods are de -
valued by 17 .1 percent and 27 .1 percent, respectively . 641 This makes it particularly vulnerable to gentrification . 642 XV . Conclusion
The American government reinforced the effects of
slavery by maintaining a racialized caste system and
effectuating segregation . Federal, state, and local gov - ernments across the country and in California, along
with private actors, created separate and unequal cities and neighborhoods for Black and white Americans . Led
by the federal government, local governments passed
zoning ordinances and state courts enforced racially re - strictive covenants to exclude African Americans from
neighborhoods . These actions were amplified by federal housing policy .
When white supremacists burned crosses, bombed
houses, harassed, and terrorized Black families moving
into white neighborhoods, local governments rarely in - vestigated and prosecuted the perpetrators . Funded by
the federal government, local governments first built
quality public housing exclusively for white Americans, then built and neglected enormous apartment complex-
es that concentrated poverty in Black neighborhoods .
In the last three decades, local governments then chose to demolish these housing projects, intensifying gentri - fication and once again displacing African Americans .
BLACK-OWNED HOME
IN CALIFORNIA
Percent of typical U.S. home value
WHITE-OWNED HOME
IN CALIFORNIA
Percent of typical U.S. home value
86% 108%
192
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
This gentrification is part of a long history if displace - ment of African Americans . Erin Aubry Kaplan, a resident of the historically Black neighborhood of Inglewood,
California wrote: “I thought about how fragile my feel - ing of being settled is . It didn’t matter that I own my house, as many of my neighbors do . Generations of rac- ism, Jim Crow, disinvestment and redlining have meant
that we don’t really control our own spaces . In that mo- ment, I had been overwhelmed by a kind of fear, one
that’s connected to the historical reality of Black people being run off the land they lived on, expelled by force, high prices or some whim of white people . ” 643
As Kaplan describes, wherever African Americans
settled and prospered throughout American history,
federal, state, and local governments, along with private actors, used numerous mechanisms: park and highway
construction, slum clearance, and urban renewal to de - stroy those communities . Across the country, the federal government helped white Americans buy single fami -
ly homes in the suburbs while crippling the ability for African Americans to access home loans and buy houses
in the neighborhoods that white families left behind .
Almost 150 years of active, conscious federal, state, and local government action and neglect of duty have re -
sulted in compounded harms that are unique to African
Americans . 644 Housing segregation stole wealth from
African Americans, while building the wealth of white
Americans (discussed in Chapter 13, The Wealth Gap) .
Once segregated, government actors turned urban Black
neighborhoods into ghettos by depriving them of public
services (discussed in Chapter 7 , Racism in Environment and Infrastructure), school funding (discussed in
Chapter 6, Separate and Unequal Education), and en -
couraged polluting industries to move in (discussed in
Chapter 7 , Racism in Environment and Infrastructure) .
As a result, African Americans suffer higher rates of
asthma and other diseases (discussed in Chapter 8,
Pathologizing the Black Family) . Housing segregation
partially created the foundation and exacerbated the
over-policing of Black neighborhoods, resulting in the
injury and death of African Americans at the hands of
police (discussed in Chapter 12, Mental and Physical
Harm and Neglect) .
These harms have never been adequately remedied .
193
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
Appendix
Table 1: Racial Disparities in Home Values, 2020 (Studied CA Metros) 645 Metro Area Value of the Typical Black-Owned Home as a
Percentage of the Value of the Typical US Home (%)
Value of the Typical white-Owned Home as a
Percentage of the Value of the Typical US Home (%)
Statewide 86 108
Los Angeles 81 118
Riverside 99 101
Sacramento 93 101
San Diego 81 106
San Francisco 78 107
San Jose 91 108
Table 2: Gap in Black Homeownership Rates (BHR) and white Homeownership Rates (WHR) in Formerly Greenlined Neighborhoods, 1980 vs. 2017 (Studied CA Metros) 646 1980 2017
Metro Area BHR (%) WHR (%) Gap BHR (%) WHR (%) Gap
Fresno 31.4 71.2 39.8 points 2.5 62.6 60.1 points
Los Angeles 49.8 69.1 19.3 points 46.2 6 7. 1 20.9 points Oakland 76.9 82.6 5.7 points 84.1 85.9 1.8 points
Sacramento 35.7 79.5 43.8 points 16.7 73.4 56.7 points
San Diego 7. 9 64.0 56.1 points 1 7. 0 60.9 43.9 points San Jose 9.9 58.8 48.9 points 41.1 60.5 19.4 points
Table 2c: Gap in Median Home Equity in Formerly Greenlined and Formerly Redlined Neighborhoods, 2019 (Studied CA Metros) 647
Metro Area Median Home Equity in Formerly
Greenlined Neighborhoods ($)
Median Home Equity in Formerly
Redlined Neighborhoods ($)
Gap (% difference)
Fresno 282,000 158,000 78
Los Angeles 1,111,000 587 ,000 89
Oakland 1,300,000 752,000 73
Sacramento 778,000 522,000 49
San Diego 1,058,000 471,000 125
San Jose 1,329,000 854,000 56
194
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
Endnotes
1 Cutler et al ., The Rise and the Decline of the
American Ghetto (1999) vol . 107 , No . 3, J .
of Political Economy 455, 456 (Cutler) .
2 U .S . Census Bureau, Black Population
1790-1915 (1918) pp . 33, 80-90 (Black
Population); Ransom & Sutch, One
Kind of Freedom: The Economic
Consequences of Emancipation
(2001) p . 57 (Ransom); Du Bois,
The Negro American Family (1908)
pp . 45-51 (Negro American Family) .
3 Cutler, supra, at p . 456; Massey &
Denton, American Apartheid:
Segregation and the Making of the
Underclass (1993) pp . 26, 41 (Massey);
see generally Grigoryeva & Ruef,
The Historical Demography of Racial
Segregation (2015) vol . 80, No . 4,
American Sociological Rev . 814-842
(Grigoryeva); Logan & Martinez, The
Spatial Scale and Spatial Configuration
of Residential Settlement: Measuring
Segregation in the Postbellum South (2018)
vol . 123, No . 4, American J . of Sociology,
1161-1203 (Measuring Segregation) .
4 Cutler, supra, at p . 456 .
5 Rothstein, The Color of Law (2017)
pp . vii-xvii (Rothstein) .
6 Logan & Parman, The National Rise in
Residential Segregation (2017) vol . 77 ,
No . 1, J . of Economic History 127 , 130,
155, 167; Taylor, The Environment
and the People in American Cities,
1600s-1900s: Disorder, Inequality,
and Social Change (2009) pp . 467-
468 (Environment and People) .
7 Cal . EPA, Pollution and Prejudice: Redlining
and Environmental Injustice in
California (Aug . 16, 2021) (as of
Apr . 4, 2022) (Cal . EPA) .
8 Rothstein, supra, at pp . vii-xvii .
9 Cal . EPA, supra .
10Taylor, Toxic Communities:
Environmental Racism, Industrial
Pollution, and Residential Mobility
(2014) p . 154 (Toxic Communities);
Kilgore, Los Angeles Land Covenants,
Redlining; Creation and Effects (June
22, 2020), Los Angeles Public
Library (as of Apr . 25, 2022) .
11 Cutler, supra, at p . 456 .
12 See, e .g ., Coates, The Case for
Reparations (June 2014), The
Atlantic (as of Apr . 25, 2022) .
13 Cutler, supra, at p . 456 .
14 California Task Force to Study and
Develop Reparation Proposals
for African Americans (October
12, 2021), Testimony of Stephen
Menendian, (as of Apr . 25, 2022) .
15 Frey, Neighborhood Segregation Persists for
Black, Latino or Hispanic, and Asian
Americans (Apr . 6, 2021), Brookings
Institution (as of Apr . 25, 2022) .
16 Wiate, The Forgotten History of the Western
Klan (Apr . 6, 2021), Atlantic (as of Apr .
25, 2022); Hudson, West of Jim Crow:
The Fight Against California’s Color
Line (2020) pp . 188-189 (Hudson) .
17 Hudson, supra, at p . 2 .
18 Du Bois, Editorial (July
1913) Crisis, at p . 131 .
19 Hudson, supra, at p . 2 .
20 See, e .g ., Rothstein, supra, at pp . 11-14 .
21 Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns:
The Epic Story of America’s Great
Migration (2010) p . 210 (Wilkerson) .
22 Munoz & Manthey, Black Families Own
Homes at a Lower Rate Than White Families
in SoCal. Here’s Why That Matters (July 15,
2021), abc7 .com (as of Apr . 4, 2022) .
23 Rothstein, supra, at pp . viii-ix; see
generally The Civil Rights Cases (1883)
109 U .S . 3 (Civil Rights Cases) .
24 Rothstein, supra, at pp . viii-ix; see gen-
erally Civil Rights Cases, supra, at fn . 23 .
Table 3 Sundown Towns identified in California from Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism by James Loewen
• Brea 648
• Bishop 649
• Burbank 650
• Maywood Colony, Corning 651
• Culver City 652
• Glendale 653
• Hawthorne 654
• La Jolla 655
• Numerous suburbs of Los Angeles 656
• Palos Verdes Estates 657
• Richmond 658
• San Marino 659
• South Pasadena 660
• Taft 661
• Tarzana 662
195
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
25 Rothstein, supra, at pp . viii-ix; see gen-
erally Civil Rights Cases, supra, at fn . 23 .
26 Rothstein, supra, at pp . x-xi .
27 Massey, supra, at p . 20; see also Cutler,
supra, at p . 456 .
28 Black Population, supra, at p . 33 .
29 Id. at pp . 89-90 .
30 Ransom, supra, at p . 57; Negro
American Family, supra, at pp . 45-51 .
31 Massey, supra, at pp . 20-21; see gener-
ally Grigoryeva, supra; Measuring
Segregation, supra .
32 Massey, supra, at p . 26; see generally
Grigoryeva, supra; Measuring
Segregation, supra .
33 Measuring Segregation, supra, at pp . 5-6;
Foner, A Short History of
Reconstruction, 1863-1877 (2015) p . 37 .
34 Du Bois, Black Reconstruction in
America: An Essay Toward a History of
the Part Which Black Folk Played in the
Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in
America, 1860-1880 (2013 ed .) p . 621 .
35 Black Population, supra, at p . 33 .
36 Id . at p . 90 .
37 Massey, supra, at pp . 20-21 .
38 Massey, supra, at pp . 19-20; see
also Foner, Reconstruction:
America’s Unfinished Revolution,
1863-1877 (1988) p . 472 .
39 Du Bois, The Philadelphia Negro: A
Social Study (1899) p . 296 .
40 Id . at p . 295 .
41 Id. at pp . 295-296 .
42 U .S . Census Bureau, 1860 Census,
California, p . 28 (as of Apr . 25, 2022) .
43 Taylor, In Search of the Racial Frontier:
African Americans in the American West
1528-1990 (1999) p . 18 (Racial Frontier) .
44 Id . at p . 85 .
45 Id . at p . 34 .
46 Id. at p . 90 .
47 Id . at p . 89 .
48 Ibid .
49 Racial Frontier, supra, at p . 85 .
50 Loewen, Sundown Towns: A Hidden
Dimension of American Racism
(2005) pp . 54-56 (Loewen) .
51 Ibid .
52 Rothstein, supra, at p . 15
53 Environment and People,
supra, at p . 467 .
54 Id. at pp . 467-468 .
55 Id. at p . 468 .
56 Wilkerson, supra, at p . 178 .
57 Ibid .
58 Ibid .
59 Ibid .
60 Id. at p . 187 .
61 Gibson & Jung, Historical Census Statistics
on Population Totals by Race, 1790 to
1990, and by Hispanic Origin, 1970-1990,
for the United States, Regions, Divisions,
and States (2002) U .S . Census Bureau,
Table 19 (as of Apr . 25, 2022) .
62 Wilkerson, supra, at p . 10 .
63 Toxic Communities, supra, at p . 153 .
64 Id. at p . 180; McClintock, James Saules,
Peter Burnett, and the Oregon Black
Exclusion Law of June 1844 (1995)
86:3 Pacific Northwest Quarterly
121, 121-123 (McClintock) .
65 McClintock, supra, at p . 124 .
66 Loewen, supra, at p . 4 .
67 See id. at pp . 4, 15, 99-100 .
68 Id. at pp . 4, 6 .
69 Id. at pp . 13, 113 .
70 Id. at 13 .
71 Ibid .
72 Toxic Communities, supra, at p . 180;
McClintock, supra, at pp . 121-123 .
73 Hudson, supra, at p . 21-22 .
74 Ibid .
75 Loewen, supra, at p . 76 .
76 See, e .g ., id. at pp . 9-10, 99-100 .
77 Id . at p . 76 .
78 See, e .g ., id. at pp . 9-10 .
79 Id. at p . 70 .
80 Loewen, supra, at p . 76 .
81 Id . at p . 276 .
82 See id. at pp . 5, 14, 23, 29, 78, 100, 102-
103, 220, 236, 239-240, 255, 258,
282, 293, 333, 338, 340, 410 .
83 Loewen, supra, at p . 49 .
84 Loewen, supra, at pp . 258, 282 .
85 Id. at p . 282 .
86 Loewen, supra, at pp . 258, 282 .
87 Id. at p . 282 .
88 Id. at p . 258 .
89 Hudson, supra, at pp . 98-99 .
90 Stuckey, Boley, Indian Territory: Exercising
Freedom in the All-Black Town
(Fall 2017) 102:4 J . of African
American History 492, 493 .
91 Hudson, supra, at pp . 98-99 .
92 Arrington, Exodusters (Apr . 10, 2015),
National Park Service (as
of Apr . 25, 2022) .
93 Hudson, supra, at p . 99 .
94 Ibid .
95 Cox, The Archaeology of the Allensworth
Hotel: Negotiating the System in Jim Crow
America (Sept . 2007) 10:3 African
Diaspora Archaeology Newsletter 1, 11 .
96 Hudson, supra, at pp .
94-95, 99-102, 104 .
97 Id. at pp . 94, 99-104 .
98 Id. at pp . 94-95, 98-99 .
99 Hudson, supra, at pp . 93-94, 106 .
100 Id. at p . 111 .
101 Hudson, supra, at p . 114 .
102 Ibid .
103 Id. at p . 115 .
104 Hudson, supra, at p . 106 .
105 California Task Force to Study and
Develop Reparation Proposals for
African Americans (Oct . 13, 2021),
Testimony of Terrance Dean, Ph.D., (as of
Apr . 25, 2022); see also Dean & Logan,
The California Boomtown That Racism
Destroyed (Sept . 30, 2021), Bloomberg (as
of Apr . 25, 2022) (California Boomtown) .
106 California Boomtown, supra .
107 Ibid .
196
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
108 Hudson, supra, at pp . 94, 105, 124 .
109 Id. at p . 95 .
110 Hudson, supra, at pp . 122, 125-126 .
111 Id. at pp . 125-126 .
112 Id. at pp . 121-126 .
113 Id. at pp . 123-126 .
114 Id. at pp . 127-128 .
115 Cal . EPA, supra .
116 Ibid .
117 Ibid .
118 Toxic Communities, supra, at p . 153 .
119 Id. at pp . 152-153 .
120 Id. at pp . 155-156 .
121 Id. at pp . 156-57 .
122 See Toxic Communities, supra, at pp .
159-192 and Rothstein, supra, at p . 45 .
123 Rothstein, supra, at p . 45 .
124 Ibid .
125 Rothstein, supra, at pp . 45-47 .
126 Toxic Communities, su-
pra, at pp . 169-170 .
127 Rothstein, supra, at pp . 47-48 .
128 Environment and People, supra, at pp .
152-157 .
129 Id. at pp . 478-479 .
130 Environment and People, supra, at pp .
479-480 .
131 Ibid .
132 Id. at p . 480 .
133 Ibid .
134 Ibid .
135 Rothstein, supra, at pp . 51-52 .
136See Toxic Communities,
supra, at p . 164 .
137 Ibid .
138 Rothstein, supra, at p . 52 .
139See, e .g ., Village of Arlington Heights v.
Metropolitan Housing Dev. Corp. (1977) 429
U.S. 252 (The Court found the zoning
plan in this case not unconstitutional
noting “respondents failed to carry their
burden proving that discriminatory
purpose was a motivating factor in the
Villages’ decision [to maintain its com-
mitment to single-family homes and
deny the MHDC rezoning proposal] .) .
140 Toxic Communities, supra, at p . 184 .
141 Id. at pp . 184-186 .
142 Ibid .
143 Ibid .
144 Ibid .
145 Toxic Communities, supra, at p . 185 .
146 Winkler, ‘Snob Zoning’ Is Racial Housing
Segregation by Another Name
(Sept . 25, 2017), Washington
Post (as of Apr . 25, 2022) .
147 Toxic Communities, supra, at p . 185 .
148 Ibid .
149 Id. at p . 164 .
150 The Persistent Racism of America’s
Cemeteries (Jan . 16, 2017), Slate
(as of Apr . 25, 2022) .
151 Environment and People,
supra, at p . 436 .
152 Rothstein, supra, at pp . 48-49 .
153 Id. at p . 49 .
154 See generally Alderman & Inwood,
How Black Cartographers Put Racism
on the Map (Feb . 24, 20201), Next
City (as of Apr . 25, 2022) .
155 Rothstein, supra, at p . 49 .
156 Ibid .
157 Id. at p . 50 .
158 Ibid .
159 Ibid .
160 Rothstein, supra, at p . 132 .
161 Id. at p . 133 .
162 Id. at pp . 133-34 .
163 Koch & Fowler, A City Plan for Austin,
Texas (1928) p . 57 (Koch) .
164 Rothstein, supra, at pp . 132-133 .
165 Ibid .
166 Koch, supra, at p . 57 .
167 Rothstein, supra, at p . 133 .
168 Ibid .
169 Id. at p . 135 .
170 McClain, In Re Lee Sing: The First
Residential-Segregation Case (1990) 3
Western Legal History 179; see generally
In re Lee Sing (N .D .Cal . 1890) 43 F . 359 .
171 Toxic Communities, supra, at p . 184 .
172 Rothstein, supra, at p . 9 .
173 Toxic Communities, supra, at p . 186 .
174 Rothstein, supra, at p . 13 .
175 Chang et . al ., Beneath The Santa Monica
Freeway Lies The Erasure Of Sugar
Hill, National Public Radio, (May 4,
2021), accessed April 27 , 2022 .
176 Bogle, Bright Boulevards, Bold
Dreams: The Story of Black
Hollywood (2006) p . 263 .
177 Rothstein, supra, at p . 131 .
178 Ibid .
179 Ibid .
180 Rothstein, supra, p . 55 .
181 Ibid .
182 Ibid .
183 Ibid .
184 Toxic Communities, supra, at p . 228 .
185 See, e .g ., Kirby Forest Indus. v. United
States (1984) 467 U .S . 1 .
186 Here to Equality, supra, at pp . 217-221 .
187 Fullilove, Eminent Domain & African
Americans: What Is the Price of the
Commons? (2007), Institute for Justice
(as of Apr . 5, 2022), p . 6 (Fullilove) .
188 Id. at p . 5 .
189 Rothstein, supra, at p . 128 (internal
quotation marks omitted) .
190 Toxic Communities, supra, at pp . 228-
229, 233 .
191 Fullilove, supra, at p . 2 .
192 Ibid .
193 Fullilove, supra, at pp . 5-6 .
194 Id. at p . 5 .
195 Id. at p . 6 .
196 Ibid .
197 Id. at p . 5 .
198 Environment and People,
supra, at p . 365 .
197
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
199Ib id
200 Environment and People,
supra, at p . 292 .
201 Id. at p . 276 .
202 Ibid .
203 Ibid .
204 Id. at p . 277 .
205 Santa Monica Conservancy, Belmar
Neighborhood (as of Apr . 25, 2022) .
206 Ibid .
207 U .S . Federal Housing Administration,
Underwriting Manual: Underwriting
and Valuation Procedure Under
Title II of the National Housing Act
(1938) Part II, § 9, ¶ 935 .
208 Toxic Communities, supra, at p . 229 .
(“Comstock’s (1912) study of housing
conditions in Black neighborhoods in
Chicago described the communities
as slums, despite the fact that 72% of
the housing was in good or fair repair
and only 28% was in bad repair .”)
209 Id. at pp . 229, 231, 246, 250 .
210 PBS/KQED, The Fillmore: Fillmore
Timeline 1860-2001 (as of Apr .
25, 2022) (Fillmore Timeline) .
211 Rusk, Inside Game/Outside Game:
Winning Strategies for Saving
Urban America (1999) p . 90 .
212 Johnson, African Americans and
Homelessness: Moving Through History,
40:4 Journal of Black Studies
(2010) 595 (as of May 1, 2022) .
213 Darity Jr . & Mullen, From Here to
Equality: Reparations for African
Americans in the Twenty-First Century
(2020) pp . 221-222 (Here to Equality) .
214 Ibid .
215 Here to Equality, supra, at p . 222 .
216 Heath et al . , The Case for Reparations in
Tulsa, Oklahoma: A Human Rights
Argument (May 2020), Human Rights
Watch (as of Apr . 25, 2022) .
217 U .S . Senate, Congress Approves the
Federal-Aid Highway Act (as
of Apr . 25, 2022) .
218 Mohl, The Interstates and the Cities:
Highways, Housing, and the Freeway
Revolt, Poverty & Race Research Action
Council (Jan . 1, 2002) p . 2 (Mohl) .
219 Mohl, supra, at p . 43; Sonksen,
Inglewood Today: The History of South
Central Los Angeles and Its Struggle with
Gentrification (June 20, 2018) Univ .
of Southern Cal . Lusk Center for
Real Estate (as of May 1, 2022) .
220 Here to Equality, supra, at p . 223 .
221 Ryan, Buttigieg Says Racism Built into US
Infrastructure Was a “Conscious
Choice” (Apr . 6, 2021), The
Grio (as of Apr . 25, 2022) .
222 Mohl, supra, at p . 2 .
223 Toxic Communities, supra, at p . 250 .
224 Rothstein, supra, at pp . 128-129 .
225 Ibid .
226 Rothstein, supra, at p . 131 .
227 McKelvey, Biden’s Unlikely Plan to Use
Roads to Fight Racism (Aug . 10, 2021),
BBC (as of Apr . 25, 2022) .
228 Ibid .
229 Ibid .
230 Ibid . (“Though activists from Syracuse
to Los Angeles fought against the con-
struction of these mega-roads, they were
built anyway[,] and left communities
wrecked - bombarded with noise and
pollution, and split down the middle .”)
231 Toxic Communities, su-
pra, at pp . 178-179 .
232 Cal . EPA, supra .
233 Ibid .
234 Hunt, What Went Wrong with Public
Housing in Chicago? A History of the
Robert Taylor Homes (2001) 94:1 J . of the
Illinois State Historical Society 96, 96 .
235 Ibid .
236 Toxic Communities, su-
pra, at pp . 249-250 .
237 Bayor, Racism as Public Policy in America’s
Cities in the Twentieth Century, Reading
Against Racism: A Berghahn
Collection (2021) p . 71 -73 .
238 California Task Force to Study and
Develop Reparation Proposals
for African Americans (Sept . 23,
2021), Testimony of Jon Burgess, (as of
Apr . 25, 2022), (Burgess Testimony);
California Task Force to Study and
Develop Reparation Proposals for
African Americans (Sept . 24, 2021),
Testimony of Dawn Basciano (as of Apr .
25, 2022) (Basciano Testimony) .
239 Burgess Testimony, supra; Basciano
Testimony, supra .
240 See Xia, Manhattan Beach Was Once
Home to Black Beachgoers, but the
City Ran Them Out. Now It Faces a
Reckoning (Aug . 2, 2020), L .A . Times
(as of Apr . 25, 2022) (Xia I) .
241 Ibid .
242 Ibid .
243 Xia I, supra .
244 Ibid .
245 Ibid .
246 Paskin, Officials Lead Effort to Return
Bruce’s Beach to the Black Family It
Was Taken from 100 Years Ago (Apr . 9,
2021), LAist (as of Apr . 25, 2022) .
247 Xia I, supra .
248 Ibid .; see also Xia, A Tale of Two
Reckonings: How Should Manhattan Beach
Atone for Its Racist Past? (Mar . 28, 2021),
L .A . Times (as of Apr . 25, 2022) (Xia II) .
249 Xia I, supra; see also Xia II, supra .
250 Xia II, supra .
251 See generally Sen. Bill No. 796 (2021-
2022 Reg . Sess .) .
252 California Task Force to Study and
Develop Reparation Proposals for
African Americans (December
8, 2021), Testimony of Dr. Alison R.
Jefferson(as of Apr . 25, 2022) .
253 Ibid .
254 Ibid .
255 Ibid .
256 Ibid .
257 Ibid .
258 Ibid .
259 Stats . 1945, ch . 1326, p . 2478 et seq .
(1945 C .R .A .) . The law was amended
numerous times over the next decades .
See Stats . 1951, ch . 710, p . 1922 et . seq .;
Cal . Const ., art . XVI, § 16; Cal . Health
198
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
& Saf . Code § 33030, et . seq .); (Stats .
1993, Ch 942 (A .B . 1290) .); (Stats . 2006,
Ch . 113 (A .B . 782, § 1)); (Stats . 2006, Ch .
595, § 2 (S . B . 1206)); (Stats . 2010, Ch .
665, § 1 (A .B . 1641)) . Today, the original
1945 set of conditions remains basi-
cally the same, but it also includes an
anti-discrimination policy regarding
the undertaking of community rede-
velopment projects . Cal . Health & Saf .
Code § 33031, subd . (a)(1), (5); subd . (b)
(1), (3); Cal . Health & Saf . Code § 33050 .
260 1945 C .R .A ., § 2 .
261 Ibid .
262 Id., § 2, subd . (a) .
263 Ibid .
264 Id., subds . (b), (d) .
265 Id., subd . (c) .
266 Id., § 2 (“Further declarations”) .
267 Fulbright, Sad Chapter in Western
Addition History Ending, (Jul . 21,
2008), S .F . Chronicle (as of
Apr . 25, 2021) (Fulbright) .
268 Taylor, How “Urban Renewal” Decimated
the Fillmore District, and Took Jazz with
It (Jun . 25, 2020), KQED (as of Apr .
25, 2022) (Decimated Fillmore) .
269 Fillmore Timeline, supra .
270 Fulbright, supra .
271 Decimated Fillmore, supra .
272 Fulbright, supra .
273 Decimated Fillmore, supra .
274 Fulbright, supra .
275 Ibid .
276 Russell City Reparative Justice Project, City
of Hayward (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
277 Hayward City Council, Resolution
Apologizing for City’s Racial Discrimination,
Nov . 17 , 2021 (Resolution) .
278 Marian “Edie” Eddens, Letter to
California Task Force to Study and
Develop Reparation Proposals for
African Americans, Feb . 24, 2022 .
279 Russell City and the Blues (Feb . 2, 2017),
City of Hayward (as of Apr . 26, 2022)
280 Gloria Bratton Sanders Moore,
Letter to California Task Force to Study
and Develop Reparation Proposals for
African Americans, Feb . 24, 2022 .
281 Whitney, Decades After “Cultural
Genocide,” Residents of a Bulldozed
Community Get Apology from Hayward
(Dec . 5, 2021), KQED (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
282 Resolution, supra.
283 Resolution, supra.
284 Jessie Mae Patterson, Letter to
California Task Force to Study and
Develop Reparation Proposals for
African Americans, Feb . 24, 2022 .
285 Resolution, supra.
286 Pritchett, The “Public Menace” of Blight:
Urban Renewal and the Private Uses
of Eminent Domain (2003) 21 Yale
L . and Policy Rev . 1, 33-34 .
287 Rothstein, supra, at p . 131 .
288 Chang et al ., Beneath the Santa Monica
Freeway Lies the Erasure of Sugar Hill (May
4, 2021), NPR (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
289 Mohl, supra, at p . 25 .
290 Ramirez, Black History in Pasadena
(Mar . 15, 2021), A Noise Within
(as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
291 Ibid .
292 Mohl, supra, at p . 25 .
293 Baldassari, Report: Oakland’s I-980 on
National “Top 10” List for Teardown
(Feb . 14, 2017), Mercury News
(as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
294 Ibid .
295 Tobias, How Fresno Is Confronting Its
History of Racism (Sept . 16, 2020),
CalMatters (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
296 Carrico et al ., Centre City Development
Corporation Downtown San Diego African-
American Heritage Study (December
2004), Mooney & Associates (as of
Apr . 6, 2022), pp . 11-13; Soliman, The
Rise and Fall of Seventh Street in Oakland
(2015), Found SF (as of April, 27 , 2022) .
297 Rothstein, supra, at pp . 16-18 .
298 Id. at pp . 19-30 .
299 Rothstein, supra, at pp . 33-34 .
300 Ibid .
301 Rothstein, supra, at p . 19 .
302 Ibid .
303 Rothstein, supra, at p . 11 .
304 Rothstein, supra, at pp . 16-34 .
305 Ibid .
306 Id. at pp . 19-30 .
307 Id. at p . 18 .
308 Rothstein, Ibid .
309 Id. at p . 20 .
310 Id . at p . 23 .
311 Id. at p . 19 .
312 Ibid .
313 Id . at pp . 23 .
314 Ibid .
315 Id. at p . 25 .
316 Ibid .
317 Id. at pp . 36-37 .
318 Ibid .
319 Gross, A ‘Forgotten History’ of how the
Federal Government Segregated America
(May 3, 2017), NPR (as of May 1, 2022) .
320 See, infra, Section X .
321 See, infra, Section XI .
322 Rothstein, supra, at p . 32 .
323 Ibid .
324 Ibid .
325 Ibid .
326 Rothstein, supra, at p . 37 .
327 Id. at p . 6 .
328 Ibid .
329 Id. at p . 33 .
330 Ibid .
331 Toxic Communities, su-
pra, at pp . 254-255 .
332 Civil Rights Act of 1964, Pub .L . 88-352,
78 Stat . 241 (1964); Fair Housing Act of
1968 Section 801, 42 U .S .C . Section 3601;
Fair Housing Act Overview and Challenges
(October 23, 2018), National Low Income
Housing Coalition (as of May 1, 2022) .
333 Rothstein, supra, at p . 35; See Otero v.
New York City Housing Authority, 484 F .2d
1122 (1973), United States v. Yonkers Board
of Education, 837 F .2d 1181 (1974), Young v.
199
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
Pierce, 822 F .2d 1368 (1987), Walker v. HUD,
912 F .2d 819 (5th Cir . 1990), Thompson
v. HUD, 220 F .3d 241 (4th Cir . 2000) .
334 Rothstein, supra, at p . 35; See Otero v.
New York City Housing Authority, 484 F .2d
1122 (1973), United States v. Yonkers Board
of Education, 837 F.2d 1181 (1974), Young
v. Pierce, 822 F.2d 1368 (1987), Walker v.
HUD, 912 F.2d 819 (5th Cir. 1990), Thompson
v. HUD, 220 F.3d 241 (4th Cir. 2000).
335 Goetz, Gentrification in Black and White:
The Racial Impact of Public Housing
Demolition in American Cities (2022) 48:8,
Urban Studies 1581, 1581 (Goetz) .
336 Id. at pp . 1583-1584 .
337 See id . at p . 1582 .
338 Goetz, supra, at pp . 1583, 1600 .
339 Id. at p . 1600 .
340 Id. at p . 1601 .
341 Goetz, supra, at p . 1584 .
342 Id. at p . 1585 .
343 Ibid .
344 Rothstein, supra, at pp . 5, 8, 12-14 .
345 Id. at pp . 71-72 .
346 Id. at p . 29 .
347 Id. at p . 31 .
348 Ibid .
349 Ibid .
350 Ibid .
351 Id. at p . 32 .
352 Id. at p . 33 .
353 Ibid .
354 Ibid .
355 Ibid .
356 Id. at p . 32 .
357 Id. at p . 3 .
358 Ibid .
359 Id. at pp . 33-34 .
360 Id. at p . 33 .
361 Ibid .
362 Id. at p . 57 .
363 Id. at p . 60 .
364 Id. at p . 59 .
365 Ibid .
366 Ibid .
367 Ibid .
368 Id. at p . 61 .
369 Ibid .
370 Id. at p . 62 .
371 Moore, et al ., Roots, Race, & Place: A
History of Racially Exclusionary Housing
in the San Francisco Bay Area (Oct . 2,
2019), Othering & Belonging Institute
(as of Apr . 25, 2022) (Moore) .
372 Ibid .
373 Ibid .
374 Ibid .
375 Domonoske, Interactive Redlining Map
Zooms In On America’s History Of
Discrimination, (Oct . 19, 2016) NPR
(as of May 3, 2022); Jackson, What
Is Redlining?, (Aug . 17 , 2021) N .Y .
Times (as of May 3, 2022) .
376 Gross, A ‘Forgotten History’ Of How The
U.S. Government Segregated America,
(May 3, 2017) NPR (as of May 3, 2022) .
377 Cal . EPA, supra; Rothstein,
supra, at p . 64 .
378 Toxic Communities, supra, at p . 239 .
379 Toxic Communities, supra, at p . 236;
Rothstein, supra, at p . 199 .
380 Moore, supra, at p . 1 .
381 Ibid .
382 U .S . Dept . of Housing and Urban
Development, Program Offices:
The Federal Housing Administration
(FHA) (as of May 1, 2022) .
379 See Kane, The Constitutionality of
Redlining: The Potential for Holding
Banks Liable as State Actors, 2 Wm . &
Mary Bill Rts . J . 527 (1993) (Kane) .
384 Lang et al ., Legacy of the Housing Act of
1949: The Past, Present, and Future of Federal
Housing and Urban Policy (2000) p . 296 .
385 Rothstein, supra, at p . 50 .
386 Id. at p . 88 .
387 Adelman, Real Life/Affirmative Action for
Whites/The houses that racism built, SF Gate
(June 29, 2003) (as of May 3, 2022) .
388See, e .g ., Nardone, et al ., Historical
Redlining and Urban Health Today in
U.S. Cities (2020), 13 Environmental
Justice 4 (as of Apr . 25, 2022) .
389 Ibid .; see also Lane, et al ., Historical
Redlining is Associated with Present-Day Air
Pollution Disparities in U.S. Cities (2022),
Environmental Science & Technology
Letters (as of Apr . 25, 2022 .)
390 Toxic Communities, supra, at p . 236 .
391 Ibid .
392 Id. at 237 .
393 Cal . EPA, supra .
394 Toxic Communities, supra, at p . 236 .
395 Ibid .
396 Ibid .
397 Ibid .
398 Ibid .
399 Cal . EPA, supra; see also, Blumgart,
Redlining Didn’t Happen Quite the Way
We Thought It Did (Sept . 21, 2021),
Governing (as of May 1, 2022) .
400 Toxic Communities, supra, at p . 237 .
401 Ibid .
402 California Task Force to Study and
Develop Reparation Proposals
for African Americans (October
13, 2021), Testimony of Paul
Austin (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
403 Cal . EPA, supra .
404 Ibid .
405 Ibid .
406 Ibid .
407 Rothstein, supra, at p . 13 .
408 See Kane, supra .
409 Toxic Communities, supra, at p . 241 .
410 Rothstein, supra, at p . 70 .
411 Id. at p . 71 .
412 Ibid .
413 Id. at p . 73 .
414 Ibid .
415 U .S . Commission on Civil Rights, 1973,
at p . 7 .
416 Rothstein, supra, at p . 115 .
200
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
417 Toxic Communities, supra, at p . 239 .
418 Rothstein, supra, at p . 115 .
419 Katznelson, When Affirmative Action Was
White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality
in Twentieth-Century America (2006) p . 115 .
420 Id . at pp . 118, 114-115 .
421 Id. at p . 128 .
422 Id. at p . 140 .
423 Cohen, A Consumers’
Republic (2004) p . 171 .
424 Katznelson, On Race and Policy History:
A Dialogue about the G.I. Bill (Sep .
2008) 4:6 Perspectives on Politics
523 (as of May 1, 2022) .
425 Cohen, A Consumers’
Republic (2004), p . 171
426 Id. at p . 15 .
427 Nelson, et al ., Mapping Inequality:
Redlining in New Deal America, American
Panorama (as of May 1, 2022) .
428 Id.
429 Id.
430 Beal, Redlining in San Diego, Local
Initiatives Support Corporation
San Diego (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
431 Rothstein, supra, at pp . 72-73 .
432 Id . at pp . 9-10 .
433 Id. at p . 11 .
434 Ibid .
435 Ibid .
436 Adelman, Racial Preferences for Whites:
The House that Racism Built, (June 29,
2003) SF Chronicle (as of May 3, 2022) .
437 Rothstein, supra, at p . 41 .
438 Gaspaire, Blockbusting (January 7 ,
2013), BlackPast (as of April 25, 2022) .
439 Ibid .
440 Ibid .
441 Rothstein, supra, at p. 12.
442 Rothstein, supra, at p . 41 .
443 Id. at p . 42 .
444 Id. at p . 111 .
445 Ibid .
446 Ibid .
447 Toxic Communities, su-
pra, at pp . 192-198 .
448 Id . at p . 223 .
449 Id . at p . 195 at fn . 62 .
450 Id . at p . 193 .
451 Ehrman-Solberg et al ., Racial
Covenants in Hennepin County
(as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
452 Toxic Communities, supra, at p . 155 .
453 Buchanan v. Warley, 245
U .S . 60, 82 (1917) .
454 Corrigan v. Buckley, 271
U .S . 323, 331 (1926) .
455 Ibid .
456 Rothstein, supra, at pp . 81-83 .
457 Id. at p . 61 .
458 Rothstein, supra, p . 82 .
459 Id . at p . 61 .
460 Rothstein, supra, at pp . 81-83 .
461 Brooks, Covenants and Conventions
(Sept . 2002), Northwestern University
Law School, p . 19 (as of May 3, 2022) .
462 Rothstein, supra, at p . 84 .
463 Federal Housing Administration,
Underwriting Manual: Underwriting
and Valuation Procedure Under
Title II of the National Housing Act
(Feb . 1938) ¶ 937 , p . 110 .
464 Rothstein, supra, at p . 85 .
465 U .S . Commission on Civil Rights,
Understanding Fair Housing
(Feb . 1973) p . 4 .
466 Rothstein, supra, at pp . 79-81 .
467 Id . at p . 105 .
468 See, e .g ., Corrigan, supra, 271 U .S . at p .
328; Torrey v. Wolfes (D .C . Cir . 1925), 6
Fed . 2d 702, 703; Russell v. Wallace, 30
Fed . 2d 981, 982 (D .C . Cir . 1929); Cornish
v. O’Donogue (D .C . Cir . 1929), 30 Fed .
2d 983, 984; Edwards v. West Woodridge
Theater Co., Inc. (D .C . Cir . 1931), 55
Fed . 2d 524, 525; Koehler v. Rowland
(1918), 275 Mo . 573; Queensborough
Land Co. v. Cazeaux (La . 1915) 67 So .
641, 642;; Porter v. Johnson (K .C . Ct .
App . 1938), 232 Mo . App . 1150.
469 Lyons v. Wallen (Okla . 1942) 133 P .2d
555, 557-58 .
470 Rothstein, supra, at p . 89 .
471 Shelley v. Kraemer (1948) 334 U .S . 1 .
472 Toxic Communities, supra, at p . 217 .
473 Rothstein, supra, at p . 86 .
474 Rothstein, supra, at p . 88 .
475 Rose, Hidden In Old Home Deeds, A
Segregationist Past (Feb . 6, 2010),
NPR(as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
476 Loh, et al ., The Great Real Estate Reset
(Dec . 16, 2020), Brookings
Institute (as of May 1, 2022) .
477 Toxic Communities, supra, at p . 223 .
478 Ibid .
479 Ib id
480 Reft, How Prop 14 Shaped California's
Racial Covenants (Sept . 20, 2017),
KCET (as of May 2, 2022) .
481 California Task Force to Study and
Develop Reparation Proposals for
African Americans (December 7 , 2021),
Testimony of Joseph Gibbons (as of Apr . 26,
2022); Reft, Segregation in the City of Angels:
A 1939 Map of Housing Inequality in L.A.
(Nov . 14, 2017), KCET (as of May 2, 2022) .
482 Kilgore, Los Angeles Land Covenants,
Redlining; Creation and Effects, (June
22, 2020) Los Angeles Public
Library (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
483 Bates, A Trailblazing Black Architect Who
Helped Shape L.A. (June 22,
2012), National Public Radio
(as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
484 Ib id.
485 Rothstein, supra, at p . 81 .
486 Ibid .
487 Id . at p . 105 .
488 Id. at p . 82 .
489 See generally Assembly Bill No. 1466
(2021-2022 Reg . Session) .
490 Ibid .
491 Hudson, supra, at p . 326 .
492 LOS ANGELES CITYWIDE HISTORIC
CONTEXT STATEMENT Context:
African American History of Los
201
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
Angeles, City of Los Angeles Department
of City Planning Office of Historic
Resources (Feb . 2018) p . 45 .
493 Hudson, supra, at p . 203 .
494 Id. at pp . 168, 205 .
495 Id. at p . 205 .
496 Id. at p . 203 .
497 Ibid .
498 Ibid .
499 Ibid .
500 Rothstein, supra, at p . 147 .
501 Ibid .
502 Moore, supra .
503 Moore, supra; Rothstein, supra, at pp .
139-140 .
504 Rothstein, supra, at p .140 .
505 Ibid .
506 Ibid .
507 Moore, supra, at p . 27 .
508 Hudson, supra, at pp . 168, 207 .
509 Menendian et al ., The Roots of
Structural Racism Project: Twenty-First
Century Racial Residential Segregation in the
United States (June 21, 2021), Othering &
Belonging Institute (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
510 Rothstein, supra, at p . 178 .
511 Logan & Stults, The Persistence of
Segregation in the Metropolis: New Findings
from the 2010 Census (Mar . 24, 2011) p . 2 .
512 Id. at pp . 2, 4 .
513 Id. at pp . 2-3 .
514 See Ibid .
515 Perry et al ., The Devaluation of Assets in
Black Neighborhoods (Nov . 2018),
Brookings, p . 10 (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
516 Ibid .
517 Rothstein, supra, at p . 179 .
518 Ibid .
519 See id. at pp . 177-180 .
520 Ibid .
521 See id. at pp . 53-54 .
522 Id. at pp . 179-180 .
523 Id. at p . 180 .
524 Village of Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan
Housing Dev. Corp., 429 U .S .
252, 254-255, 258 (1977) .
525 Id. at p . 269 .
526 Id. at p . 259 .
527 Id. at pp . 257-258, 270 .
528 Id. at pp . 270-271 .
529 Rothstein supra, at pp . 53-54 .
530 Early et al ., Racial Rent Differences in U.S.
Housing Markets: Evidence from the
Housing Voucher Program (Dec . 20,
2018) 59 J . of Regional Science
669, 671 (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
531 Aguirre Jr . et al ., The Foreclosure Crisis,
the American Dream, and Minority
Households in the United States: A
Descriptive Profile (2013) 40 Social
Justice 6 (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
532 Hyra et al ., Metropolitan Segregation and
the Subprime Lending Crisis (Dec . 21,
2012) 23 Housing Policy Debate
1, 182 (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
533 Aguirre Jr ., supra .
534 See, e .g ., U .S . DOJ, Justice Department
Reaches $335 Million Settlement to Resolve
Allegations of Lending Discrimination by
Countrywide Financial Corporation (Dec .
21, 2011), Dept . of Justice (as of Apr .
26, 2022); Powell, Memphis Accuses
Wells Fargo of Discriminating Against
Blacks (Dec . 30, 2009), The New York
Times (as of Apr . 26, 2022); U .S . DOJ,
Justice Department Reaches Settlement
with Wells Fargo Resulting in More Than
$175 Million in Relief for Homeowners to
Resolve Fair Lending Claims (Jul . 12, 2012),
Dept . of Justice (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
535 Rothstein, supra, at pp . 110-111 .
536 Ibid .Id. at p . 111 .
537 Id. at p . 112 .
538 Powell, Blacks in Memphis Lose Decades
of Gains (May 31, 2010), The New
York Times (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
539 California Housing Finance Agency,
Underserved Communities
(as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
540 McCargo, A Five-Point Strategy for
Reducing the Black Homeownership
Gap (Feb . 14, 2019), Urban
Institute (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
541 Goodman et al ., Are Gains in Black
Homeownership History? (Feb . 15, 2017),
Urban Institute (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
542 Mikhitarian, How the Housing Bust
Widened the Wealth Gap for
Communities of Color (Apr . 25, 2019),
Zillow (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
543 Hearing before U .S . House of
Representatives Committee On
Financial Services, 116th Cong ., 1st
Sess ., A Review of the State of and Barriers
to Minority Homeownership (May 8,
2019), p . 2 (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
544 Rothstein, A comment on Bank of
America/Countrywide’s discriminatory mort-
gage lending and its implications for racial
segregation (Jan . 23, 2012), Economic
Policy Institute (as of May 2, 2022) .
545 See, e .g ., U .S . DOJ, Justice Department
Reaches $335 Million Settlement to Resolve
Allegations of Lending Discrimination by
Countrywide Financial Corporation (Dec .
21, 2011), Dept . of Justice (as of Apr . 26,
2022); U .S . DOJ, Justice Department Reaches
Settlement with Wells Fargo Resulting in More
Than $175 Million in Relief for Homeowners to
Resolve Fair Lending Claims (Jul . 12, 2012),
Dept . of Justice (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
546 Rothacker et al ., Wells Fargo to Pay $175
Million in Race Discrimination Probe (July
12, 2012), Reuters (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
547 Powell, Memphis Accuses Wells Fargo of
Discriminating Against Blacks
(Dec . 30, 2009), The New York
Times (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
548 Pierog, Cleveland Sues 21 Banks Over
Mortgage Foreclosures (Jan . 11, 2008),
Reuters (as of May 2, 2022) .
549 National Association of Realtors, NAR
Finds Black Home Buyers More Than Twice as
Likely to Have Student Loan Debt, Be Rejected
for Mortgage Loans Than White Home Buyers
(Feb . 17 , 2021), NAR (as of May 2, 2022) .
550 Chen, The Resilience of New York's Black
Homeowners (Aug . 17 , 2021), The New
York Times (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
551 Aronowitz et al ., The Unequal Costs of
Black Homeownership, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology Golub
202
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
Center for Finance and Policy (Oct .
1, 2020), MIT (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
552 Ibid .
553 Choi et al ., Three Differences Between
Black and White Homeownership that Add
to the Housing Wealth Gap (Feb . 28, 2019),
Urban Institute (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
554 Kapfidze, Black Homebuyers More Likely
to Be Denied Mortgages Than Other
Homebuyers (Jul . 7 , 2020), Lending
Tree (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
555 Toxic Communities, supra, at pp . 153,
179-180, 183, see also Carter,
From Exclusion to Destitution:
Race, Affordable Housing, and
Homelessness, Cityscape: A Journal
of Policy Development and Research,
Vol . 13, No . 1 (2011) at p . 38 .
556 Consumer-Lending Discrimination in
Fintech Era (November 2019),
University of California Berkeley .
557 2020 Segregation and Integration Map
(2020), Othering and Belonging
Institute (as of May 1, 2022) .
558 Logan & Stults, supra, note 19, at pp .
6-9 . See Appendix A for segrega-
tion measurements in these cities .
559 Home Lending to Communities of Color in
California (Feb . 2022), Greenlining
Institute . p . 13, Figure 2 .
560 See Appendix A for data on inequity
in home purchase loans in
California metro areas . Home
Lending to Communities of Color in
California (Feb . 2022), pp . 59-82 .
561 Werblin et al ., Greenlining Institute .,
Locked Out of the Market: Poor Access to
Home Loans For Californians of Color (June
2017) p . 9 . Table 1 and Figure 1, p . 9 .
562 National Advisory Commission on
Civil Disorders (1967) . The Kerner
Report . Princeton University Press . p . 2 .
563 National Advisory Commission on
Civil Disorders (1967) . The Kerner
Report . Princeton University Press . p . 2 .
564 Spieler, Racism Has Shaped Public
Transit, and it's Riddled with Inequities, Rice
University, Kinder Institute for Urban
Research . August 24 2020; Sánchez, et
al ., Moving to Equity: Addressing Inequitable
Effects of Transportation Policies on
Minorities (2003), The Civil Rights Project
at Harvard University (as of May 1, 2022) .
565 Montag, Water/Color: A Study of Race
and the Water Affordability Crisis in America's
Cities, (2019), p . 3, NAACP, The Thurgood
Marshall Institute at the NAACP Legal
Defense and Educational Fund . .
566 Id. at pp . 10-12 .
567 Office of Environmental Health
Hazard Assessment, Achieving the
Human Right to Water in California: An
Assessment of the State's Community Water
Systems, California Environmental
Protection Agency (Jan . 2021), pp .
105-107 (as of May 1, 2022) .
568 Love & Vey, To Build Safe Streets, We
Need to Address Racism in Urban
Design, (Aug . 28, 2019) Brookings
Institute (as of May 1, 2022); Fighting
For Equitable Transportation: Why
It Matters, Safe Routes to School
National Partnership (2015), pp . 1-2 .
569 Williams-Tack, From Redlining to
Restorative Justice: Anti-Black Racism
and Energy Insecurity Go Hand in
Hand in America (Feb . 2021) .
570 Fleischman & Franklin, Fumes Across
the Fence-Line: Health Impacts of Air
Pollution from Oil and Gas Facilities on
African American Communities, NAACP &
Clean Air Task Force (Nov . 2017) pp . 9-11 .
571 Chapman et al ., Parks and an Equitable
Recovery: A Trust for Public Land Special
Report (May 27 , 2021); Rigolon, A
complex landscape of inequity in access to
urban parks: A literature review, (2016);
Borunda, How ‘nature deprived’ neighbor-
hoods impact the health of people of color,
National Geographic (July 29, 2020) .
572 Hoffman et al ., The Effects of Historical
Housing Policies on Resident Exposure
to Intra-Urban Heat: A Study of 108 US
Urban Areas, (Jan . 13, 2020) Climate .
573 Ibid .; Strife & Downey, Childhood
Development and Access to Nature:
A New Direction for Environmental
Inequality Research (Mar. 2009) Organ
and Environ. Vol. 22(1) 99-122.
574 Gailes et al ., The Roots of Structural
Racism Project: Twenty-First Century
Racial Residential Segregation in
the United States, (June 21, 2021),
Othering and Belonging Institute
575 Carter, From Exclusion to Destitution:
Race, Affordable Housing, and
Homelessness, Cityscape: A Journal
of Policy Development and Research,
Vol . 13, No . 1 (2011), p . 37 .
576 Richardson et al ., Nat . Community
Reinvestment Coalition, The Lasting
Impact of Historic “Redlining”
on Neighborhood Health: Higher
Prevalence of COVID-19 Risk
Factors (2020) pp . 23, 26-27 .
577 Id. at 13 .
578 Id. at 11 .
579 California Task Force to Study and
Develop Reparation Proposals for
African Americans (December
7 , 2021), Testimony of Dr. Joseph
Gibbons(as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
580 Carter, From Exclusion to
Destitution: Race, Affordable Housing,
and Homelessness, Cityscape: A
Journal of Policy Development and
Research, Vol . 13, No . 1 (2011) at p .
37; Patel et al, Black, Homeless, and
Burdened by L.A.’s Legacy of Racism,
(Dec . 22, 2019) N .Y . Times .
581 Johnson, African Americans and
Homelessness: Moving Through History,
(March 2010) 40:4 J . of Black Studies
583–605 (as of May 1, 2022) .
582 Id. at p . 596 .
583 Id. at p . 601 .
584 Id. at p . 584 .
585 Id. at p . 587 .
586 Id. at pp . 592-93 .
587 Id. at p . 596 .
588 Ibid .
589 Ibid .
590 Id. at p . 600 .
591 Henry et al, The 2020 Annual Homeless
Assessment Report (AHAR) to
Congress (Jan . 2021), p . 1 .
592 Johnson, supra, at p . 600 .
593 Ibid .
203
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
594 Ibid .
595 “Housing Discrimination against
Racial and Ethnic Minorities 2012,”
HUD . 2013 Introduction pp . XI- XXIV .
596 Wildeman, Parental Incarceration, Child
Homelessness, and the Invisible Consequences
of Mass Imprisonment, Princeton, pp . 2-6 .
597 HUD 2017 Continuum of Care Homeless
Assistance Programs Homeless
Populations and Subpopulations, U .S .
Department of Housing and Urban
Development (Nov . 7 , 2017) .
598 Anderson et al, Providing Affordable
Family Housing and Reducing Residential
Segregation by Income: A Systematic
Review (2003), American Journal
of Preventive Medicine, p . 49 .
599 Los Angeles Homeless Services
Authority, Report And Recommendations
Of The Ad Hoc Committee On Black
People Experiencing Homelessness (Dec .
2018), p . 19 (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
600 National Low Income Housing
Coalition, Racial Disparities Among
Extremely Low-Income Renters (Apr . 15,
2019), NLIHC (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
601 Rothstein, supra, at pp .180-183 .
602 Early et al ., Racial Rent Differences in U.S.
Housing Markets: Evidence from the
Housing Voucher Program (Dec. 20,
2018) 59 Journal of Regional Science
669, 671 (as of Apr. 26, 2022).
603 National Low Income Housing
Coalition, Racial Disparities Among
Extremely Low-Income Renters (Apr . 15,
2019), NLIHC (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
604 Ibid .
605 Ibid .
606 Desilver, As National Eviction Ban
Expires, A Look at Who Rents and Who
Owns in the U.S. (Aug . 2, 2021), Pew
Research Center (as of Apr . 25, 2022) .
607 Wedeen, Black and Hispanic Renters Face
Greatest Threat of Eviction in Pandemic
(Jan . 11, 2021), Joint Center for
Housing Studies of Harvard
University (as of Apr . 25, 2022) .
608 Urban Displacement Project, What Are
Gentrification and Displacement
(as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
609 Richardson et al ., Gentrification and
Disinvestment 2020 (June 2020),
National Community Reinvestment
Coalition (as of May 2, 2022) .
610 Urban Displacement Project, What Are
Gentrification and Displacement
(as of May 2, 2022) .
611 Ibid .
612 Decimated Fillmore, supra .
613 California Task Force to Study and
Develop Reparation Proposals for
African Americans (December
7 , 2021), Testimony of Darrell
Owens(as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
614 Ibid .
615 Hepler, The Hidden Toll of California’s
Black Exodus (Jul . 15, 2020)
CalMatters (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
616 Ibid .
617 Ibid .
618 Reyes et al ., A Portrait of Race and
Ethnicity in California: An Assessment
of Social and Economic Well-Being
(2001), Public Policy Institute of
California, p . 12 (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
619 Kaplan, Is My Little Library Contributing
to the Gentrification of my Black
Neighborhood? (Dec . 5, 2019), N .Y .
Times (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
620 U .S . Interagency Counsel on
Homelessness, California Homelessness
Statistics (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
621 Ibid .
622 Cimini, Black People Disproportionately
Homeless in California (Feb . 27 , 2021),
CalMatters (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
623 Ibid .
624 California State Assembly Housing
and Community Development and
Banking and Finance Committees,
Addressing Racial Disparities in
Housing Background Paper (Mar . 25,
2021), p . 4 (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
625 California Housing Finance Agency,
Black Homeownership Initiative: Building
Black Wealth (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
626 California Housing Finance Agency,
Underserved Communities
(as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
627 Ibid .
628 Denney et al ., Burdens and Benefits:
Investigating Prop. 13’s Unequal
Impacts in Oakland (Feb . 2022),
p . 4 (as of Apr . 25, 2022) .
629 California State Assembly Housing
and Community Development and
Banking and Finance Committees,
Addressing Racial Disparities in
Housing Background Paper (Mar . 25,
2021), p . 4 (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
630 Patel et al ., Black, Homeless, and
Burdened by LA ’s Legacy of Racism (Dec . 22,
2019), N .Y . Times (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
631 California Task Force to Study and
Develop Reparation Proposals for
African Americans (December
7 , 2021), Testimony of Brandon
Greene(as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
632 Ibid .
633 Spieler, Racism Has Shaped Public
Transit, and It’s Riddled with Inequities
(Aug . 24, 2020), Rice University
Kinder Institute for Urban
Research (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
634 Ibid .
635 Ibid .
636 Ibid .
637 Rowland-Shea et al ., The Nature Gap:
Confronting Racial and Economic Disparities
in the Destruction and Protection of Nature
in America (July 21, 2020), Center for
American Progress (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
638 Wilson, Stats Show Black and Indigenous
People Suffer Disproportionate Road
Deaths (Jun . 23, 2021), Streetsblog
USA (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
639 Tanner, An Overview of Poverty and
Inequality in California (Oct . 21, 2021),
CATO Institute (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
640 Manhertz, Home Value Disparities
Between Races are Shrinking, but
Remain Very Wide (Dec . 19, 2020),
Zillow (as of Apr . 26, 2022) .
641 Perry, supra .
642 California Task Force to Study and
Develop Reparation Proposals for
African Americans (December
7 , 2021), Testimony of Dr. Joseph
Gibbons (as of Apr . 25, 2022) .
204
Chapter 5 Housing Segregation
643 Kaplan, supra
644 Rothstein, supra, at pp . vii-xvii .
645 Manhertz, supra .
646 Anderson, Redlining’s Legacy of
Inequality: $212,000 Less Home
Equity, Low Homeownership Rates
For Black Families (Oct . 15, 2020),
Redfin (as of Apr . 26, 2022) . .
647 Ibid .
648 Loewen, supra, at pp . 102-03, 293 .
649 Id. at p . 338 .
650 Id. at pp . 100, 239-240 .
651 Id. at p . 49 .
652 Id. at pp . 14, 112
653 Id. at pp . 100, 236, 255 .
654 Id. at pp . 23, 333 .
655 Id. at p . 5 .
656 Id. at p . 276 .
657 Id. at p . 258 .
658 Id. at p . 239 .
659 Id. at p . 340 .
660 Id. at pp . 75, 258 .
661 Id. at pp . 347 , 410 .
662 Id. at pp . 14, 227 .
THIS PAGE INTENTIONALL Y LEFT BLANK
Separate and Unequal Education
CHAPTER 6
I . Introduction
Nationally
A quality education is the foundation for a good job, in - come growth, and, in the words of the Supreme Court
of California, “for the preservation of the rights and lib - erties of the people . ” 1 During slavery, the government of the United States of America at all levels, including the government of the State of California, deprived 11
generations of African Americans of the benefits of a
quality education .
After slavery, governments in the United States required nearly all Black children to attend segregated schools
with far fewer resources and funding than the schools
white children attended . 2 In many schools today, these separate and unequal education conditions continue
for Black children . The benefits of a good education—a better job and higher income—build up over genera -
tions . 3 Just as benefits mount and increase, so too, do the harms . For hundreds of years, governments at all
levels in America have inflicted compounding educa -
tional harm upon Black children, and they have never
made sufficient amends .
During the slavery era, in order to control the Black
enslaved people who toiled to build the wealth of this
country, enslaving states denied education to nearly all enslaved people . 4 Free states of the North and Midwest segregated their schools and limited or denied freed
Blacks access . 5 With rare exceptions, African Americans could not go to college . 6
After the Civil War, southern states and others on the
borders denied equal education to free Black people to
maintain a servant class and prevent Black people from
voting . 7 Until 1945, state governments legally segregat - ed Black children in principally one room schoolhouses
with fewer resources and funding than white schools .
White terrorist groups, supported by government offi -
cials, destroyed Black schools . 8 In the rest of the nation, government supported housing segregation and neigh -
borhood-based school assignment policies sent most
Black children to schools that were separate from white students and unequal with respect to both funding and
resources . Most state-funded and private white colleges and universities refused to admit Black students .
COURTESY OF DICK DEMARSICO/LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Black children on their way to school pass mothers protesting integration. (1965) 207
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
The Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 case, Brown v.
Board of Education , which outlawed school segrega -
tion on paper, did not mark the end of segregation,
as some Americans believe . 9 Many white government
actors throughout the country aggressively resisted
integration—shutting down public schools, harassing,
threatening, and terrorizing Black students and parents who sought to integrate schools, and providing vouch -
ers for white students to attend newly created private
schools . 10 In the rest of the country, government ac - tors created and preserved school segregation through
housing segregation and neighborhood-based school
assignment policies .
Today, in America, the vast majority of Black children
remain locked into unequal schools and classrooms,
separate from their white peers . With regard to higher education, predominantly white colleges and univer -
sities slowly increased the number of Black students
attending for about 40 years following the passage of
the Civil Rights Act of 1964 . However, in more recent
years, the overall number of Black students attending
college has declined .
California
Before the Civil War, California also denied education
to African Americans or forced them to attend segre -
gated schools with far fewer resources and funding than the schools white children attended . 11 For a period of time, California law provided state funding only based
on the number of white children in each county, and
also allowed public school districts to refuse to teach Black children even in a segregated school under cer -
tain circumstances . 12 Although California law officially ended segregated schooling for
Black students in 1890, as in the
rest of the nation, government
officials created less obvious, but
equally effective policies to keep
Black children in mostly Black,
underfunded schools . 13
Today, in California many Black stu-
dents continue to attend unequally
funded, under-resourced, and
highly segregated public schools
due to government policies that continue to segregate
many schools and school funding by neighborhood .
Recently, California has tried to provide a more equi - table funding system by providing more state money
to school districts that serve our poorest students .
However, the system does not ensure that the money
is actually spent on those students, many of whom are
Black children, and there is some evidence that this is a reason that Black students continue to be the lowest
performing sub-group in California .
Section II of this Chapter describes the laws, policies, and practices during slavery which denied education to
African Americans . Section III focuses on the period af - ter the Civil War until the present and the laws, policies, and practices that created the segregated and unequal
primary and secondary schooling experienced by the
vast majority of Black students to this day . Section IV de- scribes how laws, policies, and practices denied African Americans equal access to higher education . Section V
of this Chapter describes how our nation excludes the
experience of African Americans when educating our
children and the resulting negative impacts . Section VI summarizes the ongoing and compounding harms suf -
fered by African Americans .
II . Denial of Education During Slavery
Racist pseudo-scientific theories about the false inferi - ority of African Americans spread in the decades before the Civil War and justified prohibiting their education .
Most enslaving states formally outlawed the education
of enslaved African Americans, so enslaved people who
sought to learn to read and write had no choice but to do so in secret, and at great risk to themselves . While African Americans were enslaved and banned from schooling
in the South, their labor helped pay for public schools in some states in the North . Schooling available to free African Americans in the North was mostly in segregat - ed schools with fewer resources . At several schools that attempted to provide integrated education to African
The Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 case, Brown v. Board of Education, which outlawed school segregation on paper, did not mark the end of segregation in reality. T oday, in America, the vast majority of Black children remain locked into unequal schools and classrooms, separate from their white peers.
208
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
Americans, white Americans subjected teachers and stu-
dents to threats, harassment, and terror .
In California, for a period of time, laws intended to en - force segregated schooling also withheld state money
from schools that taught Black children and allowed
school districts to deny education to Black children al - together, under certain circumstances . Even when local governments provided money and resources to support
Black schools, white schools disproportionately received greater funding and resources .
America’s Leaders Promote
Racist Pseudoscience
In Notes on the State of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson “pro - posed that black inferiority—‘in the endowment of both
body and mind’—might be an unchangeable law of na -
ture .” 14 Some scholars argue that Jefferson’s statements became an important first document of racist scien -
tific theories that were popular in the decades before
the Civil War . 15 Some of the so-called “race scientists” graduated from elite northern colleges and claimed that Black people were subhuman and not descendants of
Adam and Eve to support, as one scholar argues, “the
self-image of the nation’s white supremacist majority .” 16 Even Abraham Lincoln also believed that white people
were superior to Black people, stating in his famous de - bate with Stephen Douglas: “I as much as any other man
am in favor of having the superior position assigned
to the white race . ” 17 Other early leaders of America, including Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and
Benjamin Rush, a Founding Father who has been called
the father of American psychiatry, endorsed these false ideas about the inferiority of African Americans that
served to justify education prohibitions . 18 Scientists later proved that these “race scientists” were wrong in the racist theories used by government officials and
private citizens to justify slavery and discrimination . 19 See also Chapter 12, Mental and Physical Harm and
Neglect, which discusses studies finding no biological
difference between Black and white people . A recent
2019 Education Week survey suggests that these racist
theories live on among America’s teachers today . 20 The survey found that more than 40 percent of American
teachers incorrectly believe that genetics is “a slight factor” in explaining why white students do better in
school than Black students . 21
The South
During more than 250 years of slavery, state govern -
ments prohibited education of African Americans,
except for certain religious education . 22 In fact, the in - stitution of slavery depended, in part, on enslaved Black people remaining uneducated . 23 Frederick Douglass’
former enslaver forbade him from learning to read, as
“[a] nigger should know nothing but to obey his master
– to do as he is told to do .” 24
Most enslaving states formally outlawed teaching an
enslaved person to read or write as early as 1740 . 25 Enslaved people caught learning to read or write in
states where this was outlawed could face prison, pub - lic whipping, or be threatened with having a finger or
arm cut off . 26 When religious education was permit - ted, it generally taught enslaved people basic reading
but not writing, because learning to write could help
an enslaved person escape . 27 Some enslaved African
Americans sought out instruction provided in secret .
For example, Douglass secretly taught other enslaved
people how to read, and described “[t]he work of
instructing my dear fellow-slaves” as “the sweetest en - gagement with which I was ever blessed . We loved each other, and to leave them at the close of the Sabbath was a severe cross indeed .” 28 As a result of such secret lessons taught by enslaved people, free African Americans, and
some white Americans, 29 about 10 percent of African
Americans in the South learned to read by 1865 . 30
The Rest of the Country
In the North, African Americans were more likely to have basic reading and writing skills . African Americans some- times attended schools that were mostly segregated,
either through government policy or local practice . 31 In some places, state and local officials prohibited African Americans from opening schools, and white Americans
harassed and threatened teachers of Black students until they stopped teaching . In some places, white Americans also vandalized or destroyed schools that permitted
Black students to attend . 32 For example, in 1832, when 40%
of American K-12 teachers today
believe that genetics is a “slight factor”
in explaining why white students do
better in school than Black students.
209
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
a white school master in Connecticut named Prudence
Crandall, began enrolling Black students in the small
school that Crandall ran out of her home, white towns - people forced her out of her own home . 33 White parents withdrew their children . 34 Crandall eventually enrolled 20 Black students . 35
On May 24, 1833, the Connecticut legislature passed a
“Black Law,” prohibiting any school from teaching Black students from outside the state without permission . 36 Local officials arrested Crandall because she kept her
school open . She spent the night in jail and charges were brought against her . Then, in January 1834, vandals set the school on fire . 37 Crandall finally closed the school in September 1834 after white townspeople broke 90 panes
of glass on her home using iron bars . 38 This was the sec- ond unsuccessful attempt to establish a school for Black students in the state . 39
While African Americans were enslaved and banned
from schooling in the South, their labor helped pay for public schools in some states in the North . 40 Enslaved people worked for free in the South picking cotton, and their labor in the South created great wealth for the
textile manufacturers in the North . By the early 1830s, New England mills consumed such large quantities of
cotton from the South—78 million pounds of cotton fi -
ber per year—that the United States became the second
largest producer of textiles in the world . 41 This textile industry in the North paid taxes . These taxes helped
to fund the public schools in New England . During
slavery, due to government policies and local practic - es, very few Black students were
permitted to attend these public
schools, even though the labor of
African Americans enslaved in the
South helped fund them . During
this time, the federal government
also supported enslavers kidnap -
ping African Americans in the
North who had escaped from slav -
ery to re-enslave them in the South, where they were
again denied education . 42 See Chapter 2 Enslavement for further discussion of related issues .
During the 1800s, Black students generally could not
receive an education beyond high school because it was
legal for colleges and universities to refuse to admit
Black students . 43 In response, free African Americans, often affiliated with Black churches, established the
first Black colleges and universities . 44 Until the early 1900s, these schools mostly offered middle and high
school level education to African Americans who had
been prohibited from attending school . 45 By the eve of the Civil War, only 28 of the nation’s nearly four million newly freed enslaved people had received bachelor’s de- grees from American colleges . 46
California
California became a state in 1850, a decade before the
onset of the Civil War . Despite the anti-enslavement
clause in California’s constitution, enslavers brought
several hundred Black enslaved people to California
and generally denied them education . 47 The early
California legislature, dominated by white southerners
from enslaving states, revd the school liseaws to enforce segregated schooling . 48 See Chapter 2 Enslavement for further discussion of related issues . These state lawmak- ers successfully enforced segregated schools to deter
racial intermixing . 49 California’s State Superintendent of Public Instruction Andrew Jackson Moulder, who
served from 1857 to 1862 stated: “[I]f this attempt to force Africans, Chinese, and the Diggers [Native Americans]
into our schools is persisted in, it must result in the ruin of our school .” 50
As early as 1855, California enacted a law calculating how much the State of California would fund a school “in
proportion to the number of white children” in each
county, so that local governments would not receive any extra money from the state when they taught a Black
student . 51 Superintendent Moulder later influenced a California law in 1863 that withheld state funds from
schools that taught Black and Chinese children . 52 So, although California taxed Black people to pay for the
state’s public schools, Black Californian’s taxes only paid for the education of white children, and they had no
right to education for their own children .
Because of both of these laws, local governments, in -
stead of the state, paid to educate nonwhite students .
Further, those local governments that ran schools for
Black students generally provided less funding and re - sources for Black schools in comparison to white schools .
For example, six years after the first all-Black school was established in 1854 in the basement of a San Francisco
While African Americans were enslaved and banned from
schooling in the South, their labor helped pay for public schools in some states in the North.
210
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
church, 53 the San Francisco School Superintendent
George Tait stated to his school board that: “[T]he room occupied by this school for the past few years is disgrace- ful to any civilized community” and was “squalid, dark, and unhealthy .” 54
In 1864, the state changed the law to allow school districts to provide education to Black students in a segregated
classroom or school if requested in writing by “the par - ents or guardians of 10 or more colored children .” 55 This meant that if fewer than 10 students lived in the dis - trict, California law also allowed public school districts to refuse to teach Black children at all . In 1866, the state changed the law again to allow white parents to prevent Black students from attending their children’s schools, if a majority of parents objected in writing . 56
Because of these state laws, Black children were
forced into separate public schools or out of the pub - lic-school system altogether . In response, Black women in Sacramento, Oakland, and San Francisco led efforts
to organize church-based schools,
private schools, and separate
free-standing public schools . 57
In the mid-1860s, Black students
across California were also gener -
ally denied access to public middle
and high schools . Few public middle
and high schools existed at the time,
and California refused to fund and
provide separate public middle and
high schools for Black students, in
part, because of the 1864 state law
that permitted school districts not to provide a school where Black students were few in number . 58
III . Unequal Primary and Secondary Education
Nationally
Formerly enslaved African Americans had a fundamen -
tal belief in the value of literate culture and this belief was expressed through their efforts to secure education for themselves and for their children . 59 For the first decade after the Civil War, African Americans and the
politicians they elected, successfully fought for and built the South’s public-school system, through a series of
legislative and constitutional enactments . 60 Prior to the concerted leadership of freed African American leaders, none of the southern states had a universal public ed - ucation system . 61 As Black political leaders passed laws and set aside funding to create a public education system for all children, Black students could attend schools in their communities .
However, government expansion of schooling for illit -
erate African Americans threatened white economic
domination . 62 According to J .L .M . Curry, an Alabama state legislator in 1889, “[e]ducation would spoil a good plow hand .” 63 So, even as educational opportunities for Black people in former enslaving states expanded, after reconstruction, white-led governments and organiza -
tions created a web of government-approved policies
and tactics, including burning schools down, to con -
tinue to deny Black people education and maintain
legalized school segregation . 64 So, even though African Americans led the creation of the public education sys - tem in the South, white students ultimately benefited
far more than Black students .
Denying education or quality education to African
Americans was also critical to denying African Americans political power and maintaining white political su -
premacy . 65 For example, most former enslaving states suppressed the Black vote by imposing a “literacy test” for voters and selectively enforcing it against Black peo - ple . 66 See Chapter 4 Political Disenfranchisement for a further discussion of this topic . The vast majority of the policies and practices that created unequal and segre - gated schools for African Americans in the South lasted another 100 years . Many continue to live on today in
different forms .
A California law passed in 1855 withheld state funds from schools that taught Black and Chinese children. So although California taxed African Americans to pay for the state’s public schools, a Black Californian’s taxes only paid for the education of white children, and they had no right to education for their own children.
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Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
African Americans Led the Creation of the
Southern Public Education System
In the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, the
vast majority of Black people lived in the South .
Formerly enslaved African Americans identified educa -
tion as essential . Black-dominated Reconstruction-era
legislatures in the South passed laws to create the pub - lic education system in the South . “The whites [in the South] had always regarded the public school system
of the North with contempt . The [Black] freedman
introduced and established it and it stands today a
living testimony to his faith that education is nec -
essary to social welfare,” said Colonel Richard P .
Hallowell, Union Army and Pennsylvania Freedmen’s
Relief Association . 67
Black men, recently allowed to vote and hold polit -
ical office, helped draft new state constitutions in
the South that mandated public education . 68 During
Reconstruction, they served on federal and state leg -
islatures that passed the bills to provide funding to
the new schools . 69 Black political leaders worked in interracial political coalitions with white Republicans (generally poor whites or Northern transplants) to es - tablish the South’s universal public-school system, what historians have called “the crown of Reconstruction . ” 70 The Freedmen’s Bureau Act of 1865 also helped set-up
some schools for Black people who had been newly
freed, 71 although the federal government ended the
Freedmen’s Bureau Act after just seven years . 72
Despite this setback and other obstacles and even af -
ter federal troops withdrew from the South in 1877 ,
African Americans who already knew how to read and
write, shared their knowledge with others in their com - munities . 73 When, as described further below, Black
communities did not receive the necessary funding
from post-reconstruction white government officials
to afford to pay teacher salaries, African Americans
sought financial assistance and teacher recruitment
from federal agencies and benevolent organizations
in the North . 74 Given the unwillingness of white prop - erty owners to rent or sell to African Americans and
the refusal of white-led post-reconstruction govern -
ments to properly fund schools, African Americans
also struggled to access buildings that they could use
as schoolhouses . 75 Nonetheless, Black communities
worked together to overcome these obstacles . Since
most African American churches were owned by
African American congregations, churches were often
utilized as schoolhouses . 76 Local residents often gath - ered together to apply liquid slate to the side walls
of the church to create chalkboards to also use these
buildings for schooling . 77
From 1908 to 1968, some of one-hundred-plus Black
teachers in rural communities in 13 states (whose sala - ries were funded by a northern philanthropist) utilized their positions not only to teach Black students but to ad- vocate for improvements to their schools, public health, living conditions, and teacher training . 78 Influential ed- ucators such as Nannie Helen Burroughs, a Black woman
who was denied a teaching position at a public school in D .C ., decided that if she could not get a job as a teacher, she would start her own school . 79 Burroughs refused to rely on white donors and instead relied on donations
from community members, which enabled her to es -
tablish the Training School for Women and Girls in D .C . by 1909 . 80 Although Burroughs’ school taught vocation - al skills as well, her school differed in that she assisted women in becoming politically and financially autono -
mous in order to empower Black women to be “public
thinkers and not just public doers .” 81
The persistence and enthusiasm of African Americans
created schools for African Americans within their com - munities when white-led southern government refused
to fund them .
Racial Terror
As discussed in Chapter 3 Racial Terror, after federal
troops withdrew from the South in 1877 , for the next
century, government officials supported private cit -
izens who terrorized African Americans and Black
institutions with impunity . White Americans burned a
number of Black schools and churches housing Black
schools to the ground . 82 White-American-led post-re - construction governments closed Black public schools
and fired Black teachers . 83 A unanimous Supreme Court effectively authorized the elimination of high school for Black students . 84 Hundreds of thousands of Black youth and adults were essentially re-enslaved on trumped up
charges upheld by federal and local judges and police,
and forced to labor for white-led U .S . companies and plantation owners under conditions that were as brutal, or even more so, than those endured during slavery . 85 A number of those re-enslaved were pre-teens and
teenagers, some were children under the age of 10 . 86 They were not enrolled in school . The unpaid labor of
these re-enslaved African Americans also built wealth
for white-led companies and plantation owners . 87 See Chapter 11 An Unjust Legal System for further discussion of related issues .
Segregation by Law
From the mid-1860s to 1954, legal segregation laws
operating in 17 former enslaving states forced African
Americans into segregated and unequal schools . 88 By 212
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
the 1880s, a series of U .S . Supreme Court cases had
severely limited the federal government’s power to en - force Reconstruction civil rights legislation intended
to protect African Americans, leaving enforcement in
the hands of white-led state and local governments . 89 This cleared the way for the Supreme Court in 1896
to endorse the idea that requiring
African Americans to be “separate”
from whites in nearly every fac -
et of life could be consistent with
equality . 90 During the long period
of segregation, African Americans
attended schools that were in -
tentionally under-resourced and
structured for the purpose of main-
taining a servant class . 91
Double-Taxation for Black Schools
After Reconstruction, white former enslavers created a
state tax system designed to underfund education for
African Americans . Some states ordered that schools
for Black children be paid for exclusively by taxes
on Black parents . 92 In these states, no white taxpay - er paid for the education of a Black child, but African Americans paid for the education of both Black and
white children . 93 This dual-tax system created huge differences in the amount of money spent to educate
Black and white children . 94
In practice, this meant that many African Americans in
the early 1900s had to pay double to receive less in ed - ucation . 95 In southern states, the disparity could be as high as ten dollars per white student for a single dollar given to fund a Black student’s education . 96 In the 1930s, a local school superintendent in Louisiana reported
bluntly: “We have twice as many colored children of
school age as we have white, and we use their money .
Colored children are mighty profitable to us . ” 97
The same African Americans were forced to donate
additional land and money to support Black schools
because the state did not send enough money for
Black schools . 98 For example, when in the 1930s a
fire destroyed classroom furniture and equipment in
a Louisiana school, according to a local newspaper,
the city refused to pay to replace any of the destroyed items . Instead, the tax dollars were given to the white school and Black parents would have to raise the money
to repair the school . 99
Inferior Resources, Funding, and Time
By the late 1890s, African Americans in former slave -
holding states had “been shunted into their own inferior . . . schools” through an “unfettered grab by white su - premacists,” according to one historian . 100 The schools they attended were often in terrible condition and
lacking in basic facilities, such as desks and chairs and working windows . 101 These schools generally included fewer grade levels of education . 102 White school author- ities intentionally selected the least-qualified teaching applicants and pushed a curriculum focused on “indus -
trial work,” e .g ., canning, sewing, and woodworking . 103 In May 1911, after completing a study of the conditions Black schools across the South, W .E .B . Du Bois conclud- ed that the state of segregated elementary schools for
African Americans in the South and in border states is in “a deplorable condition,” worse off than 20 years prior “with poorer teaching, less supervision and compara -
tively few facilities .” 104
The disparities in funding were also severe . White
schools received on average five to eight times more
government funding than Black schools in nearly all for- mer enslaving states . 105 In the 1930s in Louisiana, Black teachers and principals made on average only 43% of
what white teachers and principals made—$499 a year
compared to $1,165 . 106 Similarly, in Mississippi, Black teachers and principals made just $215 a year, while
white teachers and principals made $630 a year . 107 For Black teachers, as Isabel Wilkerson writes in The Warmth of Others Suns , this meant “even the most promising of Schoolhouse for Black students near Summerville, South Carolina. (1938)
COURTESY OF LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
In May 1911, after completing a study of the conditions of Black schools across the South, W.E.B. Du Bois concluded that the schools were in “a deplorable condition,” worse off than 20 years prior “with poorer teaching, less supervision and comparatively few facilities.”
213
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
colored people, having received next to nothing in ma - terial assets from their slave foreparents, had to labor with the knowledge that they were now being underpaid
by more than half, that they were so behind it would be all but impossible to accumulate the assets their white counterparts could, and that they would, by definition, have less to leave succeeding generations than similar
white families .” 108
In addition, the number of months Black students at -
tended school was generally fewer than white students,
e .g ., four-to-five months in comparison to six-to-eight months for white students . 109 The causes included lack of sufficient funding for schools in rural communities, where many African Americans lived, white farm own -
ers forcing Black children to work in the fields (or their sharecropping parents needing assistance), and govern - ment limits on the number of months that a Black school would be funded in comparison to a white school . 110
Despite the inferior quality of Black schools, some
prominent thinkers such as W .E .B . Du Bois, suggested that integrated schools would ultimately disadvan -
tage Black students, because the discrimination they
would inevitably continue to experience would prevent
African Americans from receiving a proper education . 111 He wrote that separate schools were “necessary for the
proper education of the Negro race .” 112 Moreover, he believed that race prejudice in the United States was
such that “most Negroes cannot receive a proper ed -
ucation in white institutions” because the proper
education of any group of people required sympathy,
understanding, and social equality between teachers
and their students . 113
In his 2014 article in The Atlantic , Ta-Nehisi Coates re - counts the story of Clyde Ross, a student who was
encouraged to attend a more challenging Black school
outside of his community built with funds from a philan- thropist and resources amassed by Black community
members, who also donated physical labor to actually
build the schools . 114 The school was too far away from Ross’ home for him to walk there and get back in time
to work in the fields . Local white children had a school bus . But Ross and other Black children did not . Thus, Ross lost out on the opportunity for a better education . 115 For many Black students, the school that Ross was en -
couraged to attend was the first ever available to them in their community . In yet another way, African Americans paid twice . They devoted funds and their own labor to
build a school for their children while also paying taxes that supported better schools for white students .
In spite of concerted state efforts to deny them equal
educational opportunities, Black southerners achieved
a literacy rate of 43 percent by 1890, a rate of growth that far surpassed the rise of literacy in Spain and Italy during the same period and that continued to rise in nearly all southern states in the early 1900s . 116 Yet, researchers have found that the “legacies of slavery” compounded
by the many obstacles that Black children faced in ac - quiring education show a correlation with high rates of illiteracy among African Americans nearly 80 years after slavery ended . 117
Resistance to Integration
In 1951, Black students led the fight for desegregation 118 and, in 1954, the Supreme Court declared race-based
segregation in public schools unconstitutional in its
Brown v. Board of Education decision . 119 Although many Americans believed that the Supreme Court’s Brown
decision was the end of school segregation, it was not .
After the Brown decision, all across the country, many
white Americans and white state and local govern -
ments refused to implement the Court’s order, while
the Federal government failed to adequately enforce the order and protect Black teachers, school administrators, and students .
African American boy watching a group of people, some carrying American flags, march past to protest the admission of the “Little Rock Nine” to Central High School. (c. 1958)
COURTESY OF BUYENLARGE VIA GETTY IMAGES
During segregation, compared
to white students, Black students
attended school
3-4 months LESS
than white students every year
214
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
In former enslaving states, white-controlled government school boards, and state and municipal governments al - most universally refused to comply with Brown in what
historians have called the “era of massive resistance . ” 120 On May 12, 1956, 90 percent of the south’s Congressional delegation signed the “Southern Manifesto” pledging to
fight integration using any means at their disposal . 121 These lawmakers and others in southern states made
good on their promise .
Some white Americans in the South used violence,
harassment, and threats to stop integration . They
attacked Black students and terrorized some Black fam - ilies who dared to enroll their children in white public schools . For example, in Arkansas,
on September 4, 1957 , when nine
Black students went to enroll in
Little Rock’s all-white Central
High School, Arkansas Governor
Orval Faubus ordered the Arkansas
National Guard to form a blockade
around the school’s front door to
keep the students out . The National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) had to get a federal court order to make the
National Guard stand down . But even with the court’s
order, the students were still not safe to enter because of the threat of white mob violence . Only after Dr . Martin Luther King, Jr . sent a plea for protection to President Eisenhower, did the federal government act . The fed -
eral government brought in 1,000 Army paratroopers
and ordered the National Guard to provide an escort
for the students as they entered the school . Twenty-one days after the nine Black students – now known as the
“Little Rock Nine” –first tried to attend the high school, they were finally able to enter . As they walked in, angry white crowds of students and adults yelled racial insults and threw objects at them . Rather than allow integra - tion to go forward in other schools, Governor Faubus
then closed all public high schools in Little Rock for the 1958 to 1959 school year . 122 Throughout their time in the school, the Little Rock Nine reported enduring severe
harassment, including physical violence from some
white students . Several years later on the eve of gradu - ation, the home of Carlotta Walls, one of the Little Rock Nine was bombed by white supremacists . 123
In Mississippi when then-NAACP civil rights attorney
Derrick Bell filed a lawsuit to integrate one communi - ty’s schools, he described how nightriders came through the community firing guns into Black homes . 124 African Americans who signed petitions to integrate the schools lost their jobs or had their credit cut off by merchants . 125 Because of the severe intimidation and harassment by
the white community, only one Black family was ulti -
mately willing to send their child to the white school . 126 When the child, Debra, arrived at school, a large crowd jeered and marshals had to escort her into the school . 127 Debra’s father lost his job the same day, and white
Americans attempted to burn their house down . 128
Southern states also passed laws to close both white and Black public schools, deny state money for any schools
that integrated, and provided vouchers or “freedom-
of-choice” to over 3,000 newly created private schools
for white students . 129 For several years, Black students in certain areas in the South had no school to attend
at all . 130 In Georgia, Governor Herman Talmadge, who fiercely opposed public school integration, told the
public at a press conference that the only solution to a public school segregation ban was “abolition of the pub- lic school system .” 131
The Supreme Court also contributed to the slow prog -
ress of desegregation . When asked to decide how quickly school districts across the country must desegregate, the Supreme Court answered that schools could do so with
“all deliberate speed .” 132 One federal judge who heard cases filed by African Americans challenging the failure to desegregate schools for almost 10 years, concluded
that the effect of the Supreme Court’s decision was to
“sacrifice[] individual and immediate vindication of the newly discovered right of [B]lacks to a desegregated ed - ucation in favor of a remedy more palatable to whites” 133 90% of the south’s
Congressional delegation
Signed the “Southern Manifesto”
pledging to fight integration
using any means at their disposal.
Rather than allow integration to go forward in other schools, Governor Faubus then closed all public high schools in Little Rock for the 1958 to 1959 school year.
215
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
Because of all of these government acts, legal school seg- regation in many places in the South continued into the 1960s and little desegregation of schools took place . 134 In five Deep South states, 1 .4 million Black school children continued to attend a segregated school until the fall of 1960, when integration efforts finally began . 135
Mass Firings of Black Educators
Federal government and court failure to adequately en - force the Brown v. Board of Education decision had other negative consequences . 136 Southern states engaged in en masse firing of Black teachers and administrators with - out cause to prevent a white administrator and teacher
with the same or overlapping position as a Black admin - istrator or teacher at the newly integrated school from losing their job . 137 In 1955, a federal
government staff attorney respond-
ed to the firing of Black teachers,
stating that: “In a war, there must
be some casualties, and perhaps the
black teachers will be the casualties
in the fight for equal education of
black students .” 138
One Black educator affected by the
firings, told researchers that in his community, the
teachers’ college for African Americans was closed in
the name of integration, and many of the professors
who taught there were required to go teach in the high
schools . The president of the Black college was “given a central office do-nothing position and then someone
with a Master’s degree, a [White] high school princi -
pal, was named president of [the newly desegregated
teachers college] .” 139
Mass firing of Black educators deeply affected the
economic, social, and cultural structure of the Black
community because many middle-class Black people
served in education . 140 It is estimated that Black com - munities lost millions of dollars as a result . For example, in 1970-71, the Black community in 17 southern states lost an estimated $240 million in salaries . 141
The mass firings also have had long-standing re -
percussions, as the presence of Black principals and
superintendents remain disproportionately low across
America in relation to the number of Black pub -
lic-school students . 142 Studies show that students who have teachers who look like them do better in school
than those who do not . Black students with at least one Black teacher by third grade are 13 percent more likely to graduate high school and 19 percent more likely to
enroll in college than Black students who had no Black
teachers . 143 However, about 80 percent of teachers and principals and 90 percent of superintendents nation -
wide are white . 144 Black teachers represent just seven percent and Black male teachers represent just two
percent of the teaching force, 145 yet 15 percent of public school students are Black students . 146 Many Black stu - dents will go through their educational careers without having a Black teacher .
Other Government-Implemented Tools to
Segregate Schools
Whereas in the South, legal segregation laws prohib -
ited Black students from attending schools with white
students, in the rest of the country, government ac -
tors largely used different but nearly as effective tools to create segregated schools for Black students with
less funding and resources . First, federal, state and lo - cal housing segregation policies, including redlining
and restrictive covenants as described in Chapter 5,
Housing Segregation, forced the vast majority of African Americans to live in separate communities from white
Americans . 147 School and government officials then
assigned Black and white students to attend different
schools based on where they lived . In this way, segregat- ed schools were created and maintained .
The schools that Black students attended then received
less funding and resources than the schools that white
students attended . This occurred because public
schools generally obtained a large portion of money
from local property taxes raised within the city where
the schools were located . As a result, the amount of
funding for the school district and school depended
on how much could be raised by taxes in each local,
segregated community .
The more expensive the properties in a school district, the more money a school district receives . When the
federal government along with private actors devalued
Black-owned properties, through redlining, they also
locked Black students into schools that received far less funding for their schools than the white families in near- by neighborhoods with a higher property tax base . 148 Black students with at least one Black teacher by third grade are 13 percent more likely to graduate high school and 19 percent more likely to enroll in college than Black students who had no Black teachers.
216
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
Some cities’ schools outside of the South were also segre- gated by law for a number of years after the Civil War . For example, segregated schools were not banned until 1920
in New York City . 149 In general, the quality of education received by Black students in these segregated schools
was not equal to the quality of education received by
white students, because schools largely attended by
Black students were underfunded and provided with
fewer resources . 150
Even after the Brown v. Board of Education decision,
highly segregated schools fostered through official ac - tions—government implemented housing segregation
and school district boundary and assignment policies—
also remained largely the rule . 151 White protests against integration, including some that involved violence
against African Americans integrating schools, occurred in different places across the country . For example, in February of 1964, after 460,000 Black and Puerto Rican
students and their parents called on the New York City
Board of Education to integrate majority-student of col - or schools that were so overcrowded they operated on
split shifts—with the school day lasting only four hours for students, and so underfunded that they had inferi - or facilities and less experienced teachers—15,000 white New York parents staged a counter-protest . 152 Milton Galamison, a civil rights activist and pastor of Siloam Presbyterian Church in Bedford-Stuyvesant, who helped
lead the protest to integrate the schools stated: “Nobody can do these children more harm than these children
are being done every day in this public school system .” 153 The United States Commission on Civil Rights 1967
study, Racial Isolation in Public Schools, confirmed the na - tion-wide problem, finding that “violence against [Black people] continues to be a deterrent to school desegrega - tion .” 154 The report also found that Black children suffer serious harm when they must attend racially segregat -
ed schools, “whatever the source of that segregation
might be .” 155
In 1968, the Kerner Commission warned President
Lyndon Johnson that the nation was “moving toward two
societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal”
as a result of “[w]hite racism” and white supremacist
institutions . 156 After a short period of active coordinat - ed federal effort to enforce desegregation rights from
1965 to 1969, the Nixon Administration curtailed en -
forcement of the 1964 Civil Rights Act . 157 By the 1980s, roughly half of the nation’s children of color resided in the 20 or 30 largest school districts . 158 In urban areas, white Americans continued to fight vehemently against
integration . For example, in Boston, schools that served Black children were poorly equipped and understaffed,
and badly underfunded . They received about two-thirds
the amount of funding received by schools in white
neighborhoods . 159 In 1974, after Black families filed suit and a court ordered the city to desegregate its schools, white mobs threw bricks, bottles, and eggs at buses car - rying black students to majority-white schools, injuring nine children . 160
As white Americans moved into the suburbs, redlin -
ing, restrictive covenants, and even violence prevented many African Americans from doing the same . Suburban
school district officials drew their boundaries at the
city and suburb line, which ensured that Black students living in the inner city would be required to attend
inner-city schools, while white children living in the
suburbs attended suburban schools . In larger school
districts in cities, unless a court desegregation order was in place, districts continued to assign students to schools based on the schools in their neighborhoods . Because
the neighborhoods remained segregated by race, the
schools continued to be segregated, too .
Intentional segregation in housing by federal and local government actors and the drawing of school district
boundaries to mirror school segregation and funding
inequities was well-known and doc-
umented . But, in 1974, when Black
parents asked the Supreme Court to
order 53 suburban school districts
to participate in the desegregation
of the predominantly Black and very
under-resourced Detroit city school
system, the Court said no . 161 Because
the Supreme Court refused to ad -
dress the government-supported
residential segregation that forced
African Americans to attend a small subset of American
schools, integration was stopped at the city-suburb
line . 162 Today, the Detroit city school system remains seg- regated—approximately 80 percent Black—and severely
underfunded and under-resourced . 163
Then, in 1977 , the Supreme Court made it difficult to
challenge neighborhood zoning rules, which made
it difficult for African Americans to move into largely After actively enforcing desegregation from 1965 to 1969, the federal government reduced enforcement of the Civil Rights Act under President Nixon. By the 1980s, roughly half of the nation’s children of color resided in the 20 or 30 largest school districts. 217
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
white residential areas . 164 Professor Derrick Bell noted that the federal government and local governments
created racially isolated communities, which in turn
“created single-race schools” and then the Supreme
Court “insulated these schools from court challenges .” 165 After these Supreme Court opinions, lower court judg -
es began to declare school districts desegregated even
when the percentage of Black students increased after
white Americans moved to the suburbs aided by housing
policies that continued to discriminate against African Americans . 166 In general, these federal courts would not find that it was against the law for Black students to at - tend schools that received far less funding and had far fewer resources than those schools attended mostly by
white students . 167
By the late 1980s, which was considered the peak of in - tegration, schools remained or were returning to being
predominantly white and predominantly non-white . 168
Ten years later things had gotten worse . On July 17 , 2001, Harvard University’s Civil Rights Project published a
study concluding that school districts across the nation had re-segregated or were re-segregating at an alarming rate, particularly in the South . 169 The study linked this re-segregation to a series of Supreme Court cases de -
cided in the early 1990s, which made it easier for school districts to remain segregated . 170
In 2007 , the Supreme Court eliminated school districts’ ability to use certain types of voluntary local desegrega - tion plans . 171 Five years later a study found that school segregation across the nation was substantially worse
than at the high point of desegregation in 1988, and
that the typical Black student was in a school where al - most two out of every three classmates (64 percent) are low-income, nearly double the level of schools of the
typical white or Asian student . 172
Studies in the last five years continue to find that seg - regated and unequally resourced schools remain the
reality for the vast majority of Black students and oth - er students of color . 173 However, they also note the extraordinary gains that Black students have made, in
spite of remaining in segregated and unequally funded
and resourced schools . Before the Brown decision, less than a fourth of Black students had
graduated from high school; now
about nine-tenths of Black students
are graduating . 174 Nonetheless, for
African Americans to ever attain
academic justice, emphasis should
be placed not just on the number
of African Americans receiving an
education, but rather on the qual -
ity and content of the education
received . As stated by Carter G .
Woodson, if the education being
provided to African Americans is “of
the wrong kind, the increase in numbers [of “educated”
African Americans] will be a disadvantage rather than
an advantage .” 175
Tracking
After Brown v. Board of Education , in districts and schools that were marginally integrated, Black students faced
segregation by other means . School officials were more likely to place Black students into special education
programs and inferior vocational, non-diploma, and al - ternative school tracks than white students . And school officials were more likely to place white students into gifted or accelerated programs than Black students . This practice where educators group students by what they
view as the student’s abilities is commonly referred to as “tracking .” 176
Studies have shown that tracking, which continues to -
day, is correlated with race, 177 and eliminates the benefits of integration for Black students, like access to college classes and high-quality curriculum . 178
Researchers explain that teachers, the vast majority of whom are white, function as primary gatekeepers in
gifted and talented identification, and are less likely to refer Black students for gifted programs than white
students with similar levels of academic achievement . 179 Black students tracked out of the mainstream program
are often re-segregated in another classroom within
the school or in a setting in another school location . 180 Those placed in “lower tracks” do not receive the same
quality of education—they often receive less resources
and opportunities . 181
At the October 12, 2021 Task Force hearing, Professor
Rucker Johnson testified to the harms of segregation
within schools, including harm to student’s health, men- tal health, school success, and income growth, telling
On July 17 , 2001, Harvard University’s Civil Rights Project published a study concluding that school districts across the nation had re-segregated or were re-segregating at an alarming rate, particularly in the South. The study linked this re-segregation to a series of Supreme Court cases decided in the early 1990s, which made it easier for school districts to remain segregated. 218
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
the panel “[t]oo often even when we see what look like
diverse schools there are segregated classrooms” and
“racialized tracking .” 182
Unequal and Segregated Schools Persist
As of the early 2000s and through today, the vast major - ity of Black children remain locked into schools separate from their white peers, and possibly more unequal than
the schools that their grandparents had attended under
legal segregation . 183 The U .S . Government Accountability Office found that, 60 years after Brown v. Board of Education, Black students are increasingly attending segregated,
high-poverty schools where they face multiple educa -
tional disparities . 184 The U .S . Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights data between
2014 through 2018 shows the same
disparities—large and persistent
opportunity gaps and fewer educa -
tion resources for Black students . 185
Black students are less likely to at -
tend schools that offer advanced
coursework and math and science
courses, 186 and less likely to be placed
in gifted and talented programs .
Another found that Black students
who had been on an accelerated math track consistent
with their white and Asian peers were disproportionately removed from that track, so that in high school they were no longer being placed with the highest achievers—there- by reinforcing racial inequality . 187 Black students are also more likely to attend schools with large class sizes and teachers with the least amount of experience and qualifi- cations, and that employ law enforcement officers but no counselors . 188 This can partially be attributed to the fact that urban school districts often times have difficulty attracting and retaining teachers due to the low pay, sub- standard working conditions, and socioeconomic factors
that affect such work environments . 189 Moreover, although many African American students deal with greater social and environmental pressures, schools mostly attended
by African Americans fail to place greater emphasis on
family counseling and community empowerment . 190
In addition, because Black students more often have
less qualified teachers than their white peers, they fall further behind in school, and some researchers believe
this is one reason for their excess placement in classes that support students with disabilities . In other words, even though they have only fallen behind because they
have not received high quality instruction, schools be - lieve incorrectly that they may have a learning or other disability . 191 These school placement and resource allo - cation decisions matter for student achievement and
post-K -12 school outcomes . 192
Severe funding disparities between schools serving
white students and those serving Black students persist as well . 193 Many school districts across the country today continue to be funded primarily by property taxes raised from the school district’s local community, even though neighborhoods continue to be segregated by race and in- come . Federal and state governments have not filled the gaps between high- and low-income districts . According to a study by EdBuild, “[n]ationally, predominantly white school districts get $23 billion more than their nonwhite peers, despite serving a similar number of children” and there is a “$1,500 per student gap between white districts . . . and equally disadvantaged nonwhite districts .” 194 This funding differential matters: more school funding im -
proves education quality . 195 In underfunded schools, students also face health and other risks because of the decrepit conditions of their school buildings . 196
Discriminatory Use of Discipline and the
School-to-Prison Track
Black students are disproportionately subjected to ex - clusionary discipline with devastating consequences,
which include significantly higher risk of dropout and
juvenile justice involvement . 197 Over the last three de - cades, research has shown that Black students are far
more likely than white students to be suspended, even
when controlling for income level . 198 This dispropor - tionate discipline also extends to preschool, where
Department of Education data from the 2013-14 school
year showed that Black preschoolers made up 18 per -
cent of preschoolers, but nearly half of all out-of-school suspensions . 199 Overall, Black students made up approx- imately 16 percent of enrollment, yet they accounted for In addition, because Black students more often have less qualified teachers than their white peers, they fall further behind in school, and some researchers believe this is one reason for their excess placement in classes that support students with disabilities.
Nationally, nonwhite school districts get
than predominantly white districts
$23 Billion LESS
219
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
40 percent of suspensions nationally during the 2013-14 school year . 200 And Black students were four times more likely to be suspended than their white peers during the 2017-18 school year . 201 Some researchers have shown that even when you control for the type of student misbe -
havior, Black students are suspended and expelled at far higher rates than their white peers . In short, even when white students and Black students misbehave in the same or similar ways, Black students are more likely to be re - moved from school for the behavior than their white
peers who do the same or similar things . 202 Researchers have also found that the difference in suspension rates between white and Black students accounts for as much
as one-fifth of the achievement gap between Black and
white students, so if Black students were suspended less then achievement levels should go up . 203
In addition, Black students are more likely to attend
schools with law enforcement on campus and significant
security measures, such as metal detectors, random se - curity sweeps and searches, security guards, and security cameras . 204 Having a large police presence and heighted surveillance measures on campus can cause students to
feel less bonded to school adults,
less engaged in school, more fearful
and less trusting of school officials
and police, and left with a feeling
of alienation because they perceive
that adults on campus inherently
distrust them . 205
That schools serving mostly Black students have more
law enforcement and fewer counselors is one reason that Black students have more contact with and are also dis - proportionately referred by schools to law enforcement .
Arrests of Black students are higher in schools with a
police officer on campus, even when controlling for
school-wide academic achievement, racial/ethnic com -
position, geography, and student misconduct . 206 In the 2015-16 school year, Black students made-up 15 percent
of students enrolled in America’s public schools but 31 percent of referrals and arrests, and they were twice as likely to be referred or arrested than their white peers in 2018-19 . 207 And Black girls are three times more likely than white girls to receive referrals
to law enforcement . 208 There is also
evidence that Black students are
more likely to be subjected to exces-
sive force by officers in schools . 209
One arrest during school can have
severe consequences for a student’s
future, as it doubles a high school
student’s likelihood of dropout and
increases their likelihood of incar -
ceration as adults . 210
Disproportionality in discipline—
and the school-to-prison pipeline
such disproportionality begets—has
been attributed to biases, implicit or otherwise, that
school officials may carry into the schoolhouse . Research shows that these biases about Black students, which can result in discriminatory disciplinary decisions, may also exacerbate the achievement gap by decreasing expecta -
tions and opportunities . 211 In addition, when students perceive an unfair distribution of punishment, an
environment of anxiety is created, with achievement
outcomes decreasing and students reporting less of a
sense of belonging . 212 Consistent research has identified alternatives to exclusionary discipline, such as School- Wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports
and social emotional learning lessons for students
that improve educational outcomes, faculty cohesion,
school safety, and teacher morale, but many school
districts have not implemented these alternatives . 213 Furthermore, intergenerational exposure to trauma re -
lated to racism has been linked to higher incidences of depression, anxiety, and other mental health conditions in Black communities compared with other groups, in -
cluding African immigrants, who have not experienced
the same multigenerational slavery and institutionalized racism . 214 Schools have not consistently provided help, such as mental health services and a trauma-informed
approach to education . Instead, schools with large
numbers of Black students have increased security and
police presence .
WHITE CHILDREN
ENROLLED vs SUSPENSIONS
BLACK CHILDREN
ENROLLED vs SUSPENSIONS
41% 19%
47%28%
PUBLIC PRESCHOOL RATE OF
OUT-OF-SCHOOL SUSPENSIONS 2013-14
Even when white students and Black students misbehave in similar ways, Black students are more likely to be removed from schools. 220
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
The impact of the school-to-prison pipeline is also re - flected in data over decades showing that, nationally,
Black youth and adults are incarcerated at a dispro -
portionately high rate compared with white youth and
adults . 215 See Chapter 11 An Unjust Legal System and Chapter 8 Pathologizing the Black Family for additional discussions of this topic . Once in the system, education provided to Black students in juvenile facilities is often substandard and youth in adult facilities may receive no education at all . 216 One of the many tragic consequenc - es of the disproportionate incarceration of Black men
is reflected in the academic struggles experienced by
young Black boys . 217 The incarceration of Black adult men contributes to the number of young Black students
in fatherless homes . Moreover, research suggests that
the lack of male models in the home has a significantly higher impact on Black male students than it does on
Black female students . 218
California
From the Civil War until the present, African Americans attending school in California have been forced to
endure the same segregated and unequal education
conditions endured by African Americans in the rest of
the nation . In the early years, school segregation was required by state law . Later, the methods to maintain segregated and unequal schools—which included hous -
ing segregation, how to draw school districts and where to build schools—have largely mirrored the methods em - ployed in other states outside of the South .
Segregated and Unequal Education Systems
In 1866, California law was amended to empower school
districts to “allow ‘colored’ children to attend” school with white children in areas where there were not
enough children of color to create a separate school,
unless the “majority of white parents objected in writ - ing .” 219 However, this change was short-lived because a California Superintendent of Public Instruction who
believed in segregation and a governor who refused to
abide by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments won
the subsequent election . 220
In 1870, legislators amended California law to pro -
vide that every school shall be open for the admission
of white children residing within the school district—
and that the “education of children of African descent
and Indian children shall be provided for in separate
schools,” and that schools with “fewer than ten students of color” can “educate them in separate schools or in any other manner .” 221 The Oakland School Board interpreted state law as no longer requiring a school for Black chil - dren and, in 1871, abruptly closed its “colored school,” which had been operating since 1866 . 222
On September 22, 1872, after the principal of San
Francisco’s white-only Broadway public school denied
11-year-old Mary Frances Ward entrance and told her to
attend the separate, all-Black public school, she and her parents filed suit in California court . 223 The California Supreme Court upheld the system of segregated schools
with a caveat . 224 Where no separate school existed, the Court concluded that Black children could attend
white schools . 225 Soon after, state law was conformed to the Ward decision—“children of African descent, and
Indian children” must be educated in separate schools
but if districts “fail to provide such separate schools, then such children must be admitted into schools for
white children .” 226
Records reveal that in 1874, there were 23 “colored
schools” in California, but “conditions had worsened for many of the state’s black youths,” because such schools were “poorly equipped . ” 227 One year later in 1875, the San Francisco School Board ended school segregation,
principally due to the cost of maintaining segregated
schools . 228 Soon after, in 1880, the legislature removed school segregation for Black students from state edu -
cation law . The amended law stated that schools “must
be open” for “all children,” except “children of filthy or vicious habits, or children suffering from contagious or infectious diseases .” 229
Nevertheless, 10 years later, in 1890, 12-year-old Arthur Wysinger was denied admission to Visalia’s “Little White” public school on account of race . The school for non - white Americans was manifestly unequal to the school
for white Americans as illustrated by the fact that the Visalia School District built a new two-story school for white students and forced Black students to attend
school in a barn . 230
Arthur Wysinger’s father, Edmond, both Black and
Native American, had been brought to California as
an enslaved person during the gold rush and eventu -
ally bought his freedom . Edmond became a part-time
preacher and laborer and always stressed the value of
to be suspended than
their white peers 4x
MORE LIKEL Y
2017-18 Black Students were
221
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
education to his six children . Edmond wanted to send
his son to Visalia’s newly constructed school, however, officials said his son could only attend the one held in the barn . Edmond sued in response and the California
Supreme Court ultimately held in favor of Edmond, but
he died before he could see his son enroll in the “Little White” school . The Supreme Court found that the 1880
education law allowed a Black student to attend any local public school . 231 However, the Court also recognized the state legislature’s right to re-impose segregated schools whenever it wished . 232
Despite this decision, California continued to have ra - cially segregated schools due to other discriminatory
policies in housing and education . Just as education
segregation existed in the North because of govern -
ment-supported housing segregation, so too it existed in California . Government-supported housing discrimina-
tion in the form of restrictive covenants on properties, redlining, and white-only housing perpetuated school
segregation . The federal government intentionally fi - nanced the creation of neighborhoods segregated by
race—funding white-only public housing, redlining
communities to deny homeownership loans to African
Americans, and promoting racially-restrictive housing
covenants . See Chapter 5, Housing Segregation, for a
more detailed discussion of this topic .
Racially-restrictive covenants, enforced by California
courts until 1948, were inserted into property titles as early as the 1890s and became rampant in the 1910s,
“effectively turning neighborhoods across the state
white-only .” 233 Districts then assigned students to schools based on the segregated neighborhood where
they lived or gerrymandered district boundaries to cre - ate segregated schools . School districts also zoned and constructed schools and drew school attendance bound-
aries in ways that created schools segregated by race . 234 In addition, in the 1940s and 1950s, when Black home -
owners tried to break the color lines, they came under
attack by the Ku Klux Klan . 235
On March 2, 1945, five Mexican-American families on
behalf of 5,000 other families sued the Westminster
School District in Orange County because the school
district forced their children to attend a different set of schools with fewer resources than the children of white families . 236 Two years later, the federal court of appeal in California ruled that California education law did not permit separate schools for Mexican
children, so creation of segregated
schools for Mexican children was
arbitrary and not allowed under
federal law . 237 This case is called the
Mendez case after the family who led
the filing of the lawsuit . At the time
of this lawsuit, most Black students
in the state were also attending
schools with all Black or nearly all
Black children .
Because California law also did
not permit the creation of separate schools for Black
students, this case meant that where a school dis -
trict had purposefully created a segregated school by,
for example, creating school attendance boundaries
around a Black neighborhood, this too was illegal . The lawyers who filed Brown v. Board of Education relied on the cases filed by Wysinger and Mendez and the other
four Mexican-American families to help convince the
Supreme Court to hold that separate schooling was un -
constitutional . Also, as a result of the Mendez decision, on June 14, 1947 , the last of California’s school segrega - tion laws, which applied to Asian American and Native
American children, was repealed . 238
Even after the Wysinger and Mendez decision, and the
Brown decision in 1954, local cities and school boards
refused to take proactive steps to desegregate schools .
For example, they did not change the school-site atten - dance boundaries that had been drawn to reflect racially segregated neighborhoods and that created racially seg - regated schools . Many also did not take proactive steps to allow students to attend other schools outside their racially segregated neighborhoods . Moreover, those that did, failed to provide Black students adequate transpor - tation to get them to schools in the white neighborhood .
In the years after, California leaders and the state’s school board acknowledged that local school segregation con -
tinued and was illegal, but the problem was not fixed . In 1962, California’s Board of Education acknowledged the
ongoing problem of highly segregated schools and direct- ed local districts to “exert all effort to avoid and eliminate segregation . . . .” 239 In 1964, prominent civil rights attor- ney, Loren Miller, confirmed that rampant segregation
by race existed in California schools when he told an
In 1870, California law was amended to read that every school shall be open for the admission of white children residing within the school district—and that the “education of children of African descent and Indian children shall be provided for in separate schools,” and that schools with “fewer than ten students of color” can “educate them in separate schools or in any other manner.” 222
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
assembly of western governors, “[M]ore Negro children
attend all-Negro schools in Los Angeles than in Jackson, Mississippi and Little Rock, Arkansas, combined .” 240
Statewide racial school census data taken in 1966 also
confirmed the high levels of segregated schools: 85
percent of African Americans attended predominant -
ly minority schools, whereas only 12 percent of Black
students and 39 percent of white students attended ra - cially balanced schools . 241 To address this segregation, California Attorney General Stanley Mosk advocated for
explicit consideration of race in formulating a plan to eliminate it, because to ignore race one would have to
“not merely conclude the Constitution is colorblind, but that it is totally blind .” 242
Many local school boards and districts did not take
the necessary steps to integrate schools, and so Black
and Latino families and their advocates filed lawsuits
and asked California courts to order school districts
to integrate . 243 In the 1960s and 70s, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Pasadena, San Diego, Inglewood, and
Richmond school districts, among others, faced court
desegregation orders . Berkeley and Riverside initiated busing programs . 244
Despite these orders, the passage of Proposition 64 in
November 1964 allowed majority-white California to
undermine efforts to integrate schools through de -
segregation of communities . This proposition allowed
property sellers, landlords, and agents to continue to
segregate communities—and, thereby, schools—on ra -
cial grounds when selling or renting accommodations,
as they had been permitted to do before 1963 . 245 The highest courts ultimately struck the law down in 1967 , but private racially restrictive covenants continued to be used by private owners to prevent African Americans
from moving into white neighborhoods with better
funded and resourced schools . 246 See Chapter 5, Housing Segregation for further discussion of related issues .
In addition, Californians successfully passed laws to
limit the tools courts could use to order schools to de - segregate . Because neighborhoods continued to be
segregated by race, one of the main tools that courts
used to desegregate schools was to have Black and white students attend schools outside of their neighborhoods
via bus transportation to the new schools . But many
white Californians strongly opposed integration plans,
especially court-ordered ones that required Black peo - ple or other students of color to be bused to attend their white schools or vice versa . And, in 1979, majority-white Californians passed Proposition 1, a law that stopped
courts from ordering school desegregation plans, un -
less families or students suing to desegregate the schools could prove that intentional discrimination by school
officials caused the segregation or a federal court could impose the same order . 247
The law, upheld by the United States Supreme Court,
limited the ability of California courts to integrate
schools that were segregated in fact, for example due
to racially segregated neighborhoods, but not by a
California law . 248 Then, from the mid- to late-1970s through the 1990s, courts removed or limited desegrega- tion orders in many California districts, as the Supreme Court and Congress further restricted the use of rem -
edies like busing and school reassignment to integrate
schools . 249 In a few cases, such as in Berkeley, schools remained relatively integrated because school districts continued busing students and using school-selection
processes designed to achieve integration, even without a desegregation order . 250
But, in the vast majority of California school districts, schools either re-segregated or were never integrated,
and so segregated schooling persists today . As of 2003, California was one of the four most segregated states for Black students . 251 As of 2014, California was identified as the third most segregated state for Black students, and a state where Black and Latino students are strongly
concentrated in schools that have far lower quality and resources than their white and Asian peers . 252 As of 2020, California remained in the top 10 most segregated states for Black students . 253 Approximately 51 percent of Black students in California attend hyper-segregated, 90- to
100-percent nonwhite schools . 254
African American children and teacher in classroom studying corn and cotton, Annie Davis School, near Tuskegee, Alabama. (c. 1902)
COURTESY OF FRANCES BENJAMIN JOHNSTON/LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 223
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
In a recent case, the state found that the segregation that persisted in a Bay Area school district was by design . For example, the California Attorney General’s office found in 2019 that the Sausalito Marin City school board had
segregated its schools, leaving the vast majority of Black students in an underfunded and under-resourced
school while providing a better-funded and resourced
charter school for the majority of white students . 255 Separate and Unequal Education
Conditions Persist
In California’s highly segregated schools, schools most - ly attended by white and Asian children receive more
funding and resources than schools
mostly attended by Black and Latino
children . Throughout the 20th cen-
tury, school districts in California,
like those across the nation, financed
their operations mainly with local
property tax revenue and limited
amounts of state and federal fund -
ing . This system allowed richer,
white neighborhoods to better fund
their schools districts than poorer,
largely Black neighborhoods . 256 In 1971, the California Supreme Court decided that this education funding
system was discriminatory because, according to the
Supreme Court, it made “the quality of a child’s education a function of the wealth of his parents and neighbors .” 257 In 1978, voters passed Proposition 13, which decreased
the amount of local property tax revenues and increased the amount of state funding for K -12 education . In 1988, voters then approved Proposition 98, which requires the state to dedicate at least 40 percent of its General Fund to K -14 education each year . 258 These measures still did not solve the issue, and Black parents and students and other parents and students of color have continued to
challenge funding inequities in court .
In late April 1991, the Richmond Unified School District, which served a high proportion of Black students, an -
nounced that it would close its schools six weeks early on May 1, 1991 due to a budget shortfall . As discussed in Chapter 5, Housing Segregation, federal housing
policies, and local officials segregated Richmond and
made it extremely difficult for Black residents to move to the suburbs after World War II . 259 Richmond parents sued, and the state Supreme Court decided that the
closure did not meet the minimum level of education
required by the state constitution . 260 In the late 1990s, in the Compton Unified School District, which served
mostly Black and Latino students, a teacher described
the deplorable conditions in a temporary school build - ing in Compton where she taught: “Because the wooden
beams across the ceiling were being eaten by termites, a fine layer of wood dust covered the students desks every morning . Maggots crawled in a cracked and collapsing
area of the floor near my desk . . . The blue metal win - dow coverings on the outsides of the windows were shut
permanently, blocking all sunlight .” 261
In 2000, students were part of a lawsuit, Williams v.
California , again alleging that schools serving majority Black, Latino, and low-income students across the state failed to provide access to even the most rudimentary
learning tools: school books, safe and decent facilities, and qualified teachers . 262 The lawsuit ultimately settled in 2004, with $138 million in state funds to provide in - structional materials to schools, $800 million for facility repairs in low performing schools through establish -
ment of the Emergency Repair Program (ERP), and $50
million to create a complaint and oversight system to
check to see if schools were providing the basics of an education . 263 According to the American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the lawsuit, the state has failed its obligation under the settlement to fund the ERP and, as of 2013, the state’s cumulative net contribution to ERP for the five last years had been $0 . 264 Further, despite progress made as a result of the Williams settlement, per- sistent challenges remain, such as textbook distribution issues and insufficient monitoring of school districts
that are new to the Williams process . 265 Without coun - ty oversight, school districts facing hard fiscal choices are often tempted to give textbooks less of a priority, despite the fact that, under Williams , students have a right to sufficient instructional materials . 266 California’s unequal funding system continues to mean that Black
and Latino students, and low-income students have far
fewer school resources .
In 2013, the state tried to address the inequalities in school funding by giving more money to schools that
have higher numbers of low-income, homeless, and fos-
ter youth . This change in the way funding was provided to school districts is referred to as the “equity index” and is part of the state’s Local Control Funding Formula that provides approximately 58 percent of the fund -
ing that California public schools receive each year . 267 As of 2020, California remained in the top 10 most segregated states in the country for Black students. Approximately 64 percent of Black students in California attend hyper-segregated, 90- to 100-percent nonwhite schools.
224
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
The state’s funding formula does not focus on Black
students specifically or require schools to ensure that the funding is spent on the high-needs students within
the district . 268 Because about 32 percent of the funding for California schools still comes from local property
taxes, and wealthier communities with higher property
values can more easily raise additional funds through
local bonds and donations, rich and often more pre -
dominantly white neighborhoods continue to fund their
schools at greater levels . 269
At the October 2021 Task Force hearing, Kawika Smith,
who graduated from Verbum Dei High School in Watts,
a historic Black neighborhood of Los Angeles, testified about two high schools in Los Angeles . In the predom - inantly Black high school, Black students went without
paper for three months simply because the school was
underfunded . In contrast, the other school had access
to extra funding, which allowed the school to purchase
a fountain . Smith told the Task Force, “I strongly believe that we need to revisit the property tax laws and algo - rithms for how schools are funded . . . I can only imagine if that money was redirected into the Black school where they needed the money – what that could have meant for
[those] Black students .” 270
As in the rest of the country, unequal funding translates to unequal opportunities . Schools with fewer resources mean fewer Advanced Placement and college prepara -
tion courses, which means that Black students attending those schools are less competitive for college and uni - versity admission and may not have taken the courses
necessary—called A-G courses in California—to go to a
four-year state University . Within districts and schools, Black students continue to be placed in vocational
tracks and out of Science, Technology, Engineering,
Mathematics, and Advanced Placement programs . 271 In addition, Black students in California are disproportion- ately likely to be identified as having a learning disability, at nearly twice the rate of Black students nationwide . 272 “Where we failed is discontinuing those efforts to in - tegrate our schools, to invest in them equitably, and to begin in the pre-K years,” Dr . Rucker Johnson, Professor of Public Policy at Berkeley told the Task Force . 273 Recent studies have shown the importance of hav -
ing at least one teacher who looks like you . 274 But the percentage of Black teachers in California declined
from 5 .1 percent in 1997-98 to four percent in 2017-18, even though Black students made up 5 .6 percent of
California’s student population . 275 Black men comprise one percent of California’s teaching force . 276
Furthermore, in California, while suspensions have
decreased significantly statewide since 2013, 277 Black students continue to be suspended at three times the
rate of white students, 278 and lose nearly four times the number of days of instruction to suspensions and ex -
pulsions as white students . 279 Suspensions for subjective offenses, such as willful defiance or disruption—which
can include anything from failing to take a hat off in class to talking in class—are a persistent but declining source of disproportionate discipline due to recent legislation limiting use for these reasons .
In recent stipulated judgments reached with four differ- ent California school districts, the California Attorney General’s office identified racial disparities in discipline for Black students with harmful negative impacts . 280 For example, the Attorney General’s investigation of
the Barstow Unified School District found that Black
middle and high school students were 79 and 78 per -
cent, respectively, more likely, to be suspended out of school than similarly situated white students, and the
rate of days Black students were
punished was 168 percent greater
in elementary, 37 .9 percent greater
in middle school, and 54 .5 percent
greater in high school than their
white peers . 281
In California, Black students are
also disproportionately referred
by schools to law enforcement . 282 A
case investigated by the California
Attorney General’s Office found
that, since 1991, school resource
officers in the Stockton Unified School District had ar - rested 34,000 students, including 1,600 under 10 years
old, with many minor misbehaviors turned into crim -
inal offenses, disproportionality impacting Black and
Latino students, and students with disabilities . 283
A number of high-profile reported cases have also raised concerns that Black children in California face increased risk of invasive searches and excessive use of force in schools . In one reported case, during school hours, a
Because about 32 percent of the funding for California schools still comes from local property taxes, and wealthier communities with higher property values can more easily raise additional funds through local bonds and donations, rich and often more predominantly white neighborhoods continue to fund their schools at greater levels.
225
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
police officer handcuffed a five-year-old Black boy with zip ties and charged him with battery because he “re -
sisted” being arrested . 284 The American Civil Liberties Union has also reported a number of incidents . In one, a Black student in a Los Angeles school was partially
strip-searched in the presence of a male officer—a vice principal forced an “eighth grade girl to pull her bra
away from her body and shake it” and when she “tried to cover her breast for modesty, the vice-principal pulled her hands away .” 285 In another filed case, school police were alleged to have handcuffed and placed a 13-year-
old Black student on probation after he was playing a
makeshift game of soccer with an orange . 286 In yet an - other, the American Civil Liberties Union reported that a school police officer who told a Black high school stu - dent that it was wrong to be gay and wear boy’s clothes, subsequently pushed her against the wall and hand -
cuffed her for telling the officer that “it was also wrong that white people like the officer enslaved her people .” 287 Subsequent to the incident, the same officer “continued to harass [her], routinely patting her down and demand- ing that she turn out her bag .” 288
Jacob “Blacc” Jackson, the Los
Angeles Youth Commissioner, ex -
plained to the Task Force during
its October 2021 hearing how he
was placed in an abusive adoptive
home and lost his older brother in
a police shooting but was focused
on “finish[ing] high school [at
Crenshaw High] and pass[ing] all
of [his classes] .” 289 When, at school,
Jackson made a mistake in dealing
with a substitute teacher, instead of
the teacher, counselors, and school
administrators trying to work with
him, he was questioned, threat -
ened, and handcuffed by school
police for an incident he had al -
ready apologized for . The school
police officer told Jackson that “they
would always be watching me . They
said you’re just like everybody else
at this school . . . I felt scared and
anxious and unclear about what to
do .” Jackson felt he could not stay at his high school and told the Task Force that, “What I wish the school [had] provided for me when I was there was real counselors,
after-school programs, real nurses, Black people history, peace building, and [transformative justice] practice . ” In general, research shows that school officials are more likely to refer Black students like Jackson to law enforce- ment for minor behavior than white students . 290 Such contacts with law enforcement increase a student’s feel- ing of isolation, and contributes to the school-to-prison pipeline and the disproportionate rates of Black people in our criminal justice system . 291
Once in the juvenile justice system, Black students face an increased likelihood of dropout due to inconsistent
education access and adequacy of instruction . 292 See Chapter 11 An Unjust Legal System for a more detailed
discussion of this topic . For Black students charged with offenses that result in a transfer to the state prison sys - tem, few can access and complete higher education . 293 IV . Unequal Higher Education
Until Brown v. Board of Education, white colleges and uni - versities largely refused to admit African Americans . 294 In response, African Americans raised funding to devel - op Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) .
In the early 1900s, the federal government began to
provide funding and land to open HBCUs, but it had
to pass through white-controlled state legislatures .
However, these historically Black institutions have been unequally funded in comparison to similar historically
white institutions throughout American history .
Demonstrators picket in front of a school board office protesting segregation of students. (1963)
COURTESY OF NATIONAL ARCHIVE/NEWSMAKERS VIA GETTY IMAGES 226
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
After World War II, the GI Bill paid for veterans to at - tend college, graduate school, and go through training
programs . 295 Although the GI Bill should have helped Black and white veterans equally, due to Black veterans’ exclusion from white colleges, the lack of Black Veterans Administration counselors and the tendency of white
counselors to steer Black veterans into vocational pro - grams, it actually increased the racial higher education gap between Black and white Americans . 296 Even today, Black military veterans continue to face discriminatory barriers that can result in unequal access to education benefits available to veterans . In addition, although
the Civil Rights Act of 1964 again promised some re -
lief through a prohibition on discrimination in higher
education programs receiving federal funds and some
colleges and universities took affirmative action to rem - edy prior-discrimination in college admissions, gains
were short-lived due to Supreme Court decisions and, in California, passage of Proposition 209, which prohibited race from being used as a factor in admissions .
Unequal Funding for Historically Black
Colleges and Universities
Prior to the Civil War, a few colleges for free African Americans existed in the north, and none in the south . 297 In 1862, the federal government under the first Morrill Act granted federal land and funding to states to open
colleges and universities, but African Americans were
generally not allowed to attend . 298 After the Civil War ended in 1865, the Freedmen’s Bureau began establish -
ing Black colleges staffed by Civil War veterans with the support of white and Black religious missionaries . 299 White missionaries funded Black education in order to
Christianize the “menace” of uneducated enslaved peo -
ple . 300 These colleges were in name only and, like many white colleges at the time, generally provided only pri - mary and secondary education . 301
In 1890, Congress passed the second Morrill Act and
required states to provide higher education to Black
students as the states had for white students . 302 In the north, where Black students were allowed to attend col - leges and universities in extremely limited numbers,
they often were not allowed to fully participate in the way that white, male students participated . 303
In order to continue receiving federal funding, for -
mer enslaving states, where the majority of African
Americans lived, built segregated public Black col -
leges . 304 White-controlled legislatures underfunded Black colleges and universities, provided substandard
facilities, and did not provide adequate resources to
train faculty . 305 White-controlled southern legislatures limited curriculum to mechanical, agricultural, and in - dustrial arts, helping maintain African Americans as a
servant underclass to build white wealth . 306
Few graduate programs admitted Black students, al -
though after World War II, the NAACP successfully sued
to expand graduate education opportunities for Black
students . 307 Although a few Black people were allowed to attend predominantly white institutions, 90 percent of
all Black degree-holders in the late 1940s had been edu - cated at Historically Black Colleges and Universities . On the eve of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, Black people were less than one percent of entering first- year students at predominantly white institutions . 308 Even after the Brown decision, white government officials in the south used state power to prohibit integration ef - forts, including in Mississippi . 309 In 1959, Clyde Kennard, a 31-year-old Black veteran of the Korean War, who ran
a small poultry farm, applied to Mississippi Southern
College, now the University of Southern Mississippi . 310 The university president reported Kennard’s intention
to apply to the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, a
state agency led by the governor of Mississippi, which
was created in order to preserve segregation . 311 After refusing to back down from applying to the university,
even after the Mississippi governor requested that he
withdraw his application, Kennard’s local cooperative
foreclosed on his farm and local government officials
arrested and falsely convicted him for stealing $25 of
chicken feed . 312 Kennard was sentenced to seven years in a chain gang where he picked cotton and was fed white
prisoners’ leftover food . 313 Kennard died of misdiag - nosed and untreated colon cancer in 1963 . 314
Segregated higher education continued into the 1970s .
In 1969 and 1970, the federal Department of Education
concluded that Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, North
Carolina, Florida, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Georgia,
Maryland, and Virginia operated segregated colleges
and universities and, in 1970, the NAACP sued the fed - eral department of education for failing to force these institutions to desegregate . 315 By the late 1970s, many years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, at least 17 south - ern states were still operating racially segregated higher education systems . 316 A number of public HBCUs closed or merged with traditionally white institutions, but most Black college students continued to attend HBCUs . 317 HBCUs continued to struggle with poorer facilities and
budgets compared to traditionally white institutions;
some lacked adequate libraries and scientific and re -
search equipment . 318
227
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
Despite the underfunding, through the 1970s, private
and public HBCUs educated a large proportion of the
African American middle class . 319 In 2006, HBCUs made up three percent of higher education but enrolled 14
percent of Black undergraduates, and graduated 28 per - cent of all Black undergraduate students who earned a
degree . 320 Seventy percent of America’s Black doctors, 35 percent of Black lawyers, and 50 percent of Black en - gineers and teachers have a degree from an HBCU . 321
For Black students, HBCUs can provide an empowering,
family-like environment of small classes and close re - lationships with faculty and students away from racial
tensions experienced off campus . 322
Today, increased access for Black students to all col - leges and universities has led to a relative decrease
in enrollment to HBCUs . 323 While Black enrollment
at HBCUs increased by 17 percent between 1976 and
2018, the total number of Black students enrolled in
all degree-granting postsecondary institutions more
than doubled during this period . 324 In 2018, there were 101 HBCUs located in 19 states, including one in Los
Angeles, the Charles R . Drew University of Medicine
and Science . 325 However, funding for HBCUs contin - ues to be uneven and is tied to a state’s fiscal health . 326 Reports in 2008 and 2014 concluded that state gov -
ernments continue to deprioritize funding public
HBCUs, leading to predominantly white universities
receiving more funding per student than HBCUs . 327 In 2008, for example, the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill received about $15,700 in state funding
per student . 328 But students at historically Black North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
received about $7 ,800 in state funding per student . 329 In 2020, the federal government increased funding for
HBCUs, but many HBCUs have closed in recent years
due to financial issues, a trend that has worsened
during the COVID-19 pandemic . 330
Unequal Access to the GI Bill
Due to expanded education opportunities and funding
under the GI Bill, between 1950 and 1975, Black student college enrollment increased from 83,000 to 666,000
students . 331 However, in comparison to white veterans who used GI Bill benefits to go to college, state officials and the structure of the program generally prevented
Black veterans from accessing the full education benefits available to them . 332
At the end of World War II, the vast majority of Black veter- ans returned to their residence in the southern states . 333 Universities in the South did not accept Black students, and white state legislatures did not increase funding to Historically Black Colleges and Universities to meet in - creased demand from returning veterans . 334 Many HBCUs had huge waiting lists, and applicants might have to wait a year or more to learn whether they had been admitted; during the postwar period, approximately 55 percent of
Black veteran applicants to HBCUs were rejected . 335 In the North, where less than a quarter of African Americans
lived at the time, although public universities admitted Black students, many private colleges and universities
continued to reject Black students, or only admitted them in small numbers . 336 Local Veterans Administration offi- cials in the South were overwhelmingly white, and steered Black people to vocational programs that funneled them
to menial jobs or prohibited use of the GI Bill to pay for college . 337 Only 12 percent of Black veterans were able to use the GI bill to enroll in college, compared to 26 percent for veterans as a whole . 338 Although African Americans used the educational benefits of the GI Bill more often than white Americans did, they could not use those ben- efits for college, like white Americans could, because they were denied entrance to white colleges and universities and often steered away from college degree programs
and into vocational tracks . 339 As a result, the educational and economic gap between white and African Americans
widened . 340 See Chapter 13 The Wealth Gap for further discussion of related issues .
Today, discrimination in access to healthcare, employ - ment, and housing continues to limit access to education benefits in the GI Bill for Black veterans compared to
white veterans . 341 While African Americans make up
16 .9 percent of the U .S . active duty force, studies show that Black veterans are not utilizing their benefits as much as white or Asian American veterans due to the
aforementioned barriers . 342
Deficiencies of Affirmative Action
The idea of affirmative action began as a concept with
President John F . Kennedy issuing an executive order
BLACK PROFESSIONALS TODA Y
Percent that graduated from HBCUs
70% DOCTORS
LAWYERS
ENGINEERS
TEACHERS
35%
50%
50%
228
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
in 1961 requiring that federal contractors “take affirma - tive action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without
regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin,” and establishing the President’s Committee on Equal
Employment Opportunity . 343 Three years later, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to ban discrimina - tion on the basis of race, color, and national origin not only in employment, but also in education . 344 With re - spect to employment, the federal department of labor
ordered all federal contractors to prepare affirmative
action plans including goals and timetables to improve
the employment standing of specific groups of people,
including African Americans . 345
In his 1965 commencement address at Howard University,
President Lyndon Johnson stated that affirmative action should be approached as a moral and policy response to
the material and psychological losses suffered by African Americans during and after the time of slavery . 346 He de- clared, “you do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, ‘you are free to com- pete with all the others,’ and still justly believe that you have been completely fair .” 347 Further, he emphasized the importance of African Americans’ humanity and stated
that what African Americans sought was “not just free - dom but opportunity—not just legal equity but human
ability—not just equality as a right and a theory, but equal- ity as a fact and as a result .” 348
In the late 1960s and 1970s, some
colleges and graduate schools began
to develop similar affirmative action
policies to increase the number of
Black and other underrepresented
students . 349 After the assassination
of Dr . Martin Luther King, Jr . on
April 4, 1968, civil rights leaders
pushed for colleges to admit more
Black students . 350 In 1969, the next
school year, the number of Black
students admitted to America’s elite
universities rose sharply, some by
more than 100 percent . 351
The lawsuits came quickly . In 1971,
two years after schools adopted af -
firmative action policies, a white
student sued the University of
Washington Law School, citing re -
verse racism as the reason for his rejection . 352 Because of this case, Harvard alumni believed that “semiliter - ate blacks are being accepted at the expense of white
geniuses[,]” said David L . Evans, associate dean of ad - missions at Harvard in 1975 .
By 1978, when the former nearly all white colleges and
universities were still admitting fewer Black students
than Black high school graduates, the Supreme Court
decided in the Regents of the University of California v.
Bakke , to limit states’ and universities’ ability to take race-based affirmative actions to address education
discrimination . 353 The Supreme Court declared that
the policy of the University of California at Davis’s med - ical school to set aside 16 of 100 total seats for “minority groups” like African Americans was unconstitutional
because it prevented white students from competing
for the 16 seats set aside . 354 The Supreme Court de - clared in Bakke and subsequent cases that if a college or university wanted to have a more diverse class of stu - dents or make up for “societal” discrimination against
African Americans in the United States then it could
only consider race as a factor, among many other fac -
tors, and with limitations . 355
In doing so, the Supreme Court rejected affirmative ac - tion programs, like Davis’s program, that were intended to compensate Black students (and other racial minority groups) for the ways that federal, state, and local gov - ernment had discriminated against them in education
for more than 200 years, solely on account of their race .
Instead, the Supreme Court described the American his-
tory of discrimination as “societal discrimination” that is “amorphous and ageless into the past[,]” which col - leges and universities could not fix through programs
A photograph taken by the Federal Security Agency, National Y outh Administration. The original caption written by the federal agency stated: “Bakersfield, California. These Negro youth are returning to their squalid homes in the Sunset district of Bakersfield.” (1940)
COURTESY OF RONDAL PARTRIDGE/NATIONAL ARCHIVES
229
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
like the one at Davis . 356 At the same time, federal courts have not struck down university and college admissions
policies, which provide a preference for legacy admis - sions, students whose parents, grandparents, and great
grandparents attended the university or college . 357 The argument is that such preferences are not race-based,
but this does not grapple with the fact that white leg - acies may have received a preference in admission
because they did not need to compete with Black stu -
dents who were excluded from the admissions pool for
centuries . 358 Critics of the current way that colleges and universities practice affirmative action as sanctioned by the Supreme Court argue that using student diversity
as a reason to include race as a factor does not address the original intention of desegregation or break down
structural barriers for Black students . 359
The percentage of Black college students has risen in the past 50 years, but it has fallen recently . The percentage of American college students who are Black increased
from 10 percent in 1976 to 14 percent in 2017 , but has dropped since from its high of 15 percent in 2011 . 360 College enrollment rates for Black 18- to 24- year-old
Americans still lag behind those for Asian and white
Americans of the same age . 361 A 2020 study found that, since 2000, the percentage of Black students enrolled
has decreased at nearly 60 percent of the 101 most se - lective public colleges and universities . 362 Researchers identify that one cause of declining enrollment is a focus on standardized testing as an admissions requirement
because the scores from such testing do not reflect the potential or ability of Black students but rather the in - equities that Black students experience throughout their education career, from less access to high-quality early education to a greater likelihood of attending schools
with less funding, fewer experienced teachers, and few - er rigorous course options . 363 Other causes for declining enrollment include closure of for-profit colleges and
declines at two-year public colleges due to unemploy -
ment . Black students are overrepresented at both types of colleges . 364
California
In 1996, California voters passed Proposition 209, which eliminated consideration of race in public education ad- missions, regardless of long-standing segregation and
past discrimination . 365 This has had significant impacts on Black and other students of color in California . 366 In 2020, a University of California, Berkeley study found
that this affirmative action ban has harmed Black and
Latino students by significantly reducing enrollment
across the University of California campuses and low -
ering their graduation rates . 367
An earlier 2006 study found that Black admissions had
plummeted since the ban on affirmative action, partic - ularly at the University of California Los Angeles and
Berkeley campuses . 368 In 2020, the President of the University of California Student Association, Varsha
Sarveshwar, commented that, “[t]he exclusion of Black
and Latino students from selective colleges and uni -
versities is nothing short of a crisis . . . . 7 out of 9 UC undergraduate campuses receive D and F grades in ac -
cess for Black and Latino students .” 369 Sarveshwar called on higher education leaders and policymakers to “move
beyond public commitments to diversity – and act deci - sively to ensure that access is truly equitable . ” 370 The continued nature of the uneven playing field be -
tween Black and white students was highlighted in a
recent legal settlement between student and community
groups and the University of California . 371 The lawsuit, leading up to the settlement, was brought by then
19-year-old Kawika Smith, a high school student from
South Los Angeles, who asserted that the use of SAT and ACT scores in admissions and university scholarship de - cisions may be discriminatory because they are proxies
for wealth and race, and only exacerbate the gaps that
exist due to unequal exam preparation between schools
and based on whether parents can pay for private test
tutors . 372 In addition, research has shown that Black students may perform poorly on standardized tests, not
because of genetic or cultural differences, but because negative stereotypes raise doubts and high-pressure
anxieties in a test-taker’s mind . 373 Kawika Smith told the Task Force at its October 2021 hearing that when he thought back to the day he took the SAT, he was “im -
mediately met with this memory of feeling that I wasn’t worthy or capable of being in a collegiate environment, and this singular test determined that I would not be eli- gible for scholarship opportunities despite my academic at Americas most selective colleges
and universities 2000-2020
60% decline
in Black student enrollment
230
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
achievements and having been in need of financial sup - port to afford college[ .]” 374 The legal settlement with the University California ensures that SAT and ACT scores
will not be used in admission and scholarship decisions until spring 2025 . 375
V . Teaching Inaccurate History
Researchers and historians have raised significant con - cerns that the American K -12 education system is failing to teach a complete and accurate history of slavery and structural racism, along with the significant role that African Americans had in developing this nation’s wealth without compensation . Dr . David Yacovone, a histori - an at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African
& African American Research who has been studying
United States history textbooks published from 1839 to
the 1980s found that many textbooks taught that white
people were superior to Black people and downplayed,
minimized, or justified slavery based on a racial caste system, with African Americans appearing “only as a
problem .” 376 Dr . Yacovone explained that in the older his- tory textbooks “[w]hite supremacy is a toxin . . . . injected . . . into the mind of many generations of Americans .” 377 In addition, a 2018 study, Teaching Hard History: American Slavery, surveyed social studies teachers in K -12 schools across the country and found that 97 percent agreed
that learning about slavery is essential, but that there is a lack of deep coverage on the topic; 58 percent re - ported dissatisfaction with their textbooks; and 39
percent reported their state offered little or no support for teaching about slavery . 378 The study gave an average score of 46 percent with respect to whether 10 popular
U .S . history textbooks provide comprehensive coverage of slavery and enslaved people . The study also found
that only eight percent of 1,000 American high school
seniors surveyed could identify slavery as the central
cause of the Civil War . 379 To ensure that schools accurate- ly teach American history, Dr . Yacovone recommends
“teach[ing] the truth about slavery as a central institu - tion in America’s origins, as the cause of the Civil War, and about its legacy that still lives on . ” 380
In Texas, the state that uses the largest amount of text - books, thereby shaping the K -12 textbook industry,
the Board of Education, rather than historians, began
changing the history books to refer to formerly enslaved people as workers . 381 In schools, students of color, in - cluding Black students, are less likely to see books with characters that share their cultural background and
textbooks that reflect their experiences . 382 Many edu - cators recognize that textbooks do not accurately and
fully reflect experiences of people of color; only one in five educators, the vast majority of whom were white, in a June 2020 nationwide survey thought so . 383 Educators of color were more likely to find textbooks lacking . 384 In 2020, Connecticut became the first state in the nation to require high schools to offer African-American, Black,
Puerto Rican, and Latino studies . 385
There is continued opposition to discussing the truth
about slavery in public K -12 schools . Republicans in mul- tiple states and in Congress have introduced bills to cut funding from schools that choose to use curriculum de - rived from the New York Times’ Pulitzer Prize-winning
1619 series of essays challenging readers to think about slavery as foundational to the nation’s origin story . They argue inclusion of this history delegitimizes the idea of the U .S . as a nation founded on principles of liberty and freedom and creates racial divisions . 386 In addition, the concept that schools may be teaching students critical
race theory—which explains that
race is a social construct embed -
ded in legal systems and policies—is
under attack across the nation by
groups that say it divides Americans
and places the blame on white
Americans for current and histor -
ical harm to African Americans and
other nonwhite Americans . 387 But
Randi Weingarten, the President
of the American Federation of
Teachers, one of the nation’s largest teaching unions,
has said that teaching critical race theory is really about teaching “the truth” and pledged to defend any teach -
er “who gets in trouble for teaching honest history . . .
Teaching the truth is not radical or wrong . Distorting history and threatening educators for teaching the
truth is what is truly radical and wrong . ” 388 Weingarten Historians have found that United States history textbooks published from 1839 to the 1980s taught that white people were superior to Black people and downplayed, minimized, or justified slavery.
231
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
publicly stated that those attacking critical race theo - ry have other motives: “labeling any discussion of race, racism or discrimination as critical race theory to try to make it toxic” and “to deprive students of a robust
understanding of our common history .” 389
As important as how schools shape their curriculum
concerning the history of Black people in America is
how schools teach the humanity of Black people before,
during, and after enslavement . A curriculum that un -
does the harmful narratives of African Americans that
have historically been used to justify false conceptions of Black inferiority, requires schools to teach that African Americans’ stories did not begin with enslavement . 390 Such a curriculum also requires schools to teach about
humanity’s origins in Africa thousands of years before
either Arabs or Europeans encountered people of West
and Central African ancestry . 391 Academics have also fo- cused on the importance of teaching about the study
of African lives and the African experience for true
liberation . 392 In order to empower Black communities through the study of Black history, academics discuss the importance of challenging European perspectives of the
African experience to prevent others from defining the
African experience and to give African people control
over the narrative that is told about their experiences . 393 Redefinition of school curriculum discussing Black ex - periences, including the narrative about the African
experience, is particularly important in California, a
state which, as of 2015, was home to the fifth largest
Black population in the country . 394
The dehumanization inscribed in school textbooks caus-
es miseducation and effectively contributes to African
Americans’ “cultural and social alienation from identity and existential belonging .” 395 In the 1960s, W .E .B Du Bois spoke out about the dangers posed by the deficiencies
in school curriculums with regard to Black history and
culture . 396 He warned that the intentional omission of these concepts from public school curriculums would
ultimately cause Black history and culture to be lost,
unless Black families and organizations actively and
systematically impressed these fundamental principles
upon subsequent generations of African Americans . 397 In line with this same notion of education for liberation and cultural preservation, many activists specifically fo - cused their efforts on the establishment and expansion
of “Black Studies” on university and college campuses
to further the ongoing movement for the liberation
of African Americans . The majority of Black Studies
programs began at predominantly white institutions
and a handful of HBCUs . 398 Although the Black Studies Movement was initially faced with stiff opposition, by
1971 an estimated 500 courses and programs had been
organized in the United States . 399
California
California student groups have long raised concerns
that the complete history of racism and segregation
in the state and across the nation has been left out of textbooks, and that leaders from diverse backgrounds
who helped create this nation and California are not
reflected . 400 “It isn’t just white heroes like Christopher Columbus or folks like George Washington or Thomas
Jefferson . There was a lot more history behind it and
we don’t learn a lot about the other important figures
that contributed to making America[] into what it is,”
Alvin Lee, President of Generation Up, a 4,000-member
California student organization, shared with legislators considering how to change California’s history textbooks to better reflect the contributions of its diverse people .
One state legislator who has advocated to ensure that
California’s elementary and secondary schools teach a
curriculum that reflects the history of African Americans and other people of color, explained that: “Knowledge
of our history plays a critical role in showing who we
become” and “students [are more engaged] when they
[see] themselves reflected in the coursework . ” 401
Among other things, California’s approach to teaching
about slavery has been critiqued . In 2018, a classroom teacher made headlines for staging a classroom simula - tion of conditions on a slave ship to provide a “unique learning experience .” 402 A study by Southern Poverty Law Center found that California did a better job than
other states in teaching slavery, but highlighted concerns with the approach of teaching about Harriet Tubman
in second grade two years before slavery is taught and
Only 8% of American
high school seniors
could identify slavery as the
central cause of the Civil War
232
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
failing to discuss how false ideas of white economic and political supremacy fueled and perpetuated slavery as
an institution . 403
In addition, research has shown that because school
curricula often do not include content that reflects the experience, culture, and history of Black students, they and others students whose experience, culture, and
history is not reflected, suffer . 404 When Black students do not see their experiences and history reflected in
the school curricula, this leads to a feeling that they are not important and even invisible and voiceless in the
classroom . 405 And while culturally responsive teacher training is one way to help Black students and other stu- dents of color feel welcomed, included, and valued in
schools, teacher preparation is inadequate in training
teachers to be culturally-responsive and to carry those practices into the classroom in both the way they teach and the materials they use when they teach . 406
One other way to increase diversity in curriculum is
by adding ethnic studies courses . “Ethnic studies” is a term used to encompass Black, Chicano, Latino, Native,
and Asian American studies, and was developed in re -
sponse to lack of representation of people from these
groups in curricula taught in U .S . schools, colleges, and universities . Generally, ethnic studies is not taught in California elementary and secondary schools, despite
known academic performance and attendance ben -
efits . 407 In 2016-17 , only a small number—17 ,354 K -12 students statewide—were enrolled in ethnic studies
courses . 408 One reason for this: Only 51 percent of the 777 ethnic studies courses in social science in 2016-
17 were approved as meeting A-G state university
admissions requirements . 409
This may be changing . In 2016, California state law
mandated creation of a voluntary K -12 ethnic studies
curriculum . Recently, on March 18, 2021, the State Board of Education approved the model ethnic studies curric - ulum . 410 And while in 2019, a California bill to mandate ethnic studies in all K -12 schools was vetoed by Governor Newsom, 411 in October 2021, he signed a different bill, Assembly Bill 101, which will require California high
school students to take ethnic studies as a graduation
requirement commencing in 2030 . 412 In the interim,
several districts have recently made completion of a
course in ethnic studies a graduation requirement, in - cluding Montebello, Sacramento City, and Coachella . 413 In 2020, San Francisco approved development of a K -12
Black studies curriculum . 414
In California’s public colleges and universities, the move- ment for Ethnic Studies began in 1968 . At that time, the Black Student Union, the Third World Liberation Front,
select faculty and staff, and other activists from the larg - er San Francisco Bay Area, organized and led a series of protests at San Francisco State University . 415 Protestors denounced the deficiencies within the university’s
curriculum, which neglected and misrepresented
the experiences of people of color, including African
Americans and indigenous people . 416 On a mission to define and shape their own educational experiences,
students drafted a list of demands for the university
and protested for months until a deal was negotiated .
Ultimately, the university agreed to establish a College of Ethnic Studies, the first in the nation, with classes geared toward communities of color . 417 Since that time, 22 of 23 CSU campuses have maintained some level of ethnic
studies, but a recent legislative analysis suggested that 53 percent of CSU students had not taken a course between
2015 to 2018 . 418
In August 2020, Governor Newsom signed Assembly
Bill 1460, which, beginning in 2024 to 2025, requires a three credit ethnic studies course for graduation from
a CSU—the first change to the CSU’s general education
curriculum in over 40 years . 419 Legislative findings in support of the bill’s passage included that white students and students of color benefit from taking ethnic stud - ies courses, which “play an important role in building
an inclusive multicultural democracy .” 420 In discussing the importance of the bill’s passage, Senator Steven
Bradford, the bill’s co-author commented, “Ethnic stud- ies is critical in learning our contributions to America and telling the true story of our rich history .” 421
VI . Conclusion
During the slavery era, enslaving states denied Black
enslaved Americans an education so that they could
maintain control over the enslaved people they de -
pended upon to build this nation’s wealth . However,
an understanding of how powerful knowledge can
be emboldened enslaved African Americans to find
ways to educate themselves, despite the great danger
they risked in doing so . Following the Civil War, states adopted many laws and policies continue denying
education to free African Americans and to effective -
ly maintain an illiterate servant class . In states where Black children were permitted to attend segregated
schools, white-controlled legislatures severely under - funded these schools and subjected Black students to
233
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
deplorable conditions . Aside from the inferior quality of these schools, Black communities also suffered from
the ongoing racist attacks by white terrorist groups who committed themselves to destroying Black schools . Even after the Supreme Court outlawed school segregation in
its 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, white pol - icymakers and school boards adopted other policies to
ensure the continued exclusion of Black students from
their schools . Such policies and the incidents and effects of enslavement continue to have lasting effects on the
educational opportunities and the quality of academic
opportunities available to African Americans today . 422 Because government acts have denied the vast majori -
ty of African Americans continued access to education
and high quality and well-funded schools from enslave - ment until the present, they have suffered a number of
harms, including lower levels of high school gradua -
tion, achievement, and college access and completion .
These injuries widened the gap between Black and white
wealth in America . The COVID-19 pandemic has made
the education injuries even worse, because far more
Black students than white students live in poverty, and students living in poverty have had less access to the
technology needed to participate in remote school -
ing . 423 California and the nation have not adequately accounted for the harmful intergenerational effects of
education discrimination and denial .
In recent years, the academic gap between all student
groups has steadily narrowed, except for the gap be -
tween Black and white students, which has widened,
confirming the ongoing existence of deeply-rooted
racial disparities in the nation’s education system . 424 In California, over the past decade, average math and
reading test scores rose for all student groups, except Black students . In districts where there was the least significant gap between the academic achievements of
different student groups, data showed that this could
be attributed to less socioeconomic inequality among
students, more spending per pupil by the district, and
fewer disparities in access to experienced teachers . 425 The gap also continues to exist in high school gradua - tion rates, but it has reduced considerably nationwide
and in California since the 1960s . 426 Nonetheless, the gap in college as well as graduate school admission and graduation rates has remained stagnant, with African
Americans half as likely as white Americans to have a
college degree . 427
Due to intergenerational denials of equal educational
opportunity, African Americans have also been denied
a number of other benefits, including a positive link be - tween one’s own education and the education received
by one’s children . 428 More schooling is associated with higher earnings in one’s own life and in subsequent gen- erations . 429 However, white and African Americans with the same educational level do not have the same level
of wealth . 430 White college graduates have seven times more wealth than their Black college graduate counter - parts, even when it is assumed that the white and Black college graduates are in jobs making the same amount
of money . 431 African American college graduates also have two-thirds of the net worth of white Americans
who never finished high school . 432 And Black college graduates continue to suffer higher unemployment
rates than white college graduates . 433 Centuries after slavery, white Americans continue to benefit from its
effects, and African Americans continue to suffer its
compounded harms .
234
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
Endnotes
1 Piper v. Big Pine Sch. Dist. of Inyo Cty. (1924)
193 Cal . 664, 668, 673-74 .
2 Orfield and Jarvie, Black Segregation
Matters: School Resegregation and Black
Educational Opportunity, UCLA Civil
Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos
Civiles (Dec . 2020) pp . 4-6 (as of July
1, 2021) (hereafter Black Segregation
Matters); Ladson-Billings, From the
Achievement Gap to the Education Debt:
Understanding Achievement in U.S. Schools
(2006) 35 Ed . Researcher 3, 5 (hereafter
Achievement Gap to the Education Debt) .
3 Ladson-Billings, Achievement Gap to the
Education Debt, supra; Tamborini
et al ., Education and Lifetime
Earnings in the United States (2015) 54
Demography 1383, 1385-1386 .
4 Sambol-Tosco, The Slave Experience:
Education, Arts & Culture, Thirteen
(2004) p . 2 (as of Mar . 5, 2021)
(hereafter The Slave Experience) .
5 Sambol-Tosco, The Slave Experience,
supra; Bell, Silent Covenants: Brown v.
Board of Education and the Unfulfilled
Hopes for Racial Reform (2004) p .
52 (hereafter Silent Covenants) .
6 Woodson, The Education of the Negro Prior
to 1861 (1919) p . 15 .
7 Burnette II, Do America’s Public Schools
Owe Black People Reparations? (Sept . 23,
2020) 40 Education Week 4-7 (as of June
21, 2021) (hereafter Do America's Public
Schools?); Jim Crow Laws, History (Feb . 21,
2021) (as of June 21, 2021); see also South
Carolina v. Katzenbach (1966) 383 U .S . 301,
310-13, 311, fn . 10 (noting that Southern
states “rapidly instituted racial segrega-
tion in their public schools” following
the Civil War and discussing the inter-
play between efforts to restrict literacy
and efforts to restrict the vote); Du Bois,
The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches
(2d ed . 1903); Tyack and Lowe, The
Constitutional Moment: Reconstruction and
Black Education in the South (1986), 94 Am .
J . Ed . 236, 238-239, 250-252; Anderson,
The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-
1935 (1988) pp . 95-96 (“From the vantage
point of the southern white majority,
any system of universal education for
blacks, even industrial education, would
potentially lead to universal suffrage .”) .
8 Coates, The Case for Reparations, The
Atlantic (Jun . 2014) (as of June 21, 2021);
Du Bois and Dill, The Common School
and the Negro American, Report Of A Social
Study Made By Atlanta University Under
The Patronage Of The Trustees Of The John
F. Slater Fund, With The Proceedings Of The
16th Annual Conference For The Study Of The
Negro Problems, Held At Atlanta University,
On Tuesday, May 30th, 1911 (1911) (here-
after The Common School) p . 117 (in 1909
in one county in Georgia, “five school
houses for colored children, with their
contents, have been burned” and over
the last few years “burning of Negro
school houses . . . by white neighbors
had been frequent in the gulf states .”) .
9 Brown v. Board of Education (1954) 347
U .S . 483, 495 .
10 Horsford and McKenzie, ‘Sometimes I
feel like the Problems Started with
Desegregation’: Exploring Black
Superintendent Perspectives on Desegregation
Policy (2008) 21 Int . J . of Qualitative
Studies in Ed . 443, 444 (hereafter
Exploring Black Superintendent Perspectives) .
11 Don Wilson Builders v. Superior Ct. for Los
Angeles County (1963) 220 Cal . App . 2d
77 , 89 (dis . opn . of Fourt, J .) (“California
history indicates that at the time the
state was organized in 1849 and for
some several years thereafter many
southerners were influential in the state
government and otherwise and their
influence is reflected in many statutes .
The statutes of 1850, ch . 140, p . 424,
set forth the law against miscegena-
tion and such remained the law in one
form or another until 1948 [] .”); Smith,
Remaking Slavery in a Free State: Masters
and Slaves in Gold Rush California (2011)
80 Pacific Historical Rev . 28, 49-50 .
12 Hudson, West of Jim Crow: The Fight
Against California’s Color Line (2020) p . 32
(hereafter West of Jim Crow); Hendrick,
The Education of Non-Whites in California,
1849-1970 (1977) p . 7; Wollenberg, All
Deliberate Speed: Segregation and Exclusion
in California Schools, 1855-1975 (1976) p .
12, fn . 10 (hereafter All Deliberate Speed);
see Stats . 1855, ch . 185, § 12, p . 232 .
13 One of these tactics was housing segre-
gation, which government enforced in
a variety of ways . See, e .g ., Rothstein,
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History
of How Our Government Segregated
America (2017) (hereafter The Color
of Law); Orfield and Jarvie, Black
Segregation Matters, supra, pp . 12-13 .
14 Farrow et al ., Complicity: How the North
Promoted, Prolonged, and Profited
from Slavery (2005) pp . 180-
181 (hereafter Complicity) .
15 Ibid .
16 Id. at pp . 181-182 .
17 Id. at p . 191 .
18 Ladson-Billings, From the Achievement
Gap to the Education Debt, supra, p .
6 (hereafter Achievement Gap to the
Education Debt); Warner, Psychiatry
Confronts its Racist Past, and Tries
to Make Amends, N .Y . Times (Apr .
30, 2021) (as of Apr . 27 , 2022) .
19 Farrow et al ., Complicity, supra, p . 191 .
20 Burnette II, Do America’s Public Schools?,
supra, fn . 7 .
21 Ibid .
22 Sambol-Tosco, The Slave Experience,
supra, p . 2 .
23 Woodson, The Education of the Negro
Prior to 1861, supra, pp . 7-10, 13; Albanese,
The Plantation School (1976) pp . 131-138,
255-256 (“Moreover the presence of a
large mass of semi-civilized slaves made
possible the concentration of large tracts
of lands in a few hands, and helped
perpetuate a society with aristocrat-
ic institutions and tendencies .”) .
24 Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick
Douglass, an American Slave (1845)
Electronic Edition, p . 33 .
25 Span, Learning in Spite of Opposition:
African Americans and their History of
Educational Exclusion in Antebellum
America (2005) 131 Counterpoints 26,
27-28; Woodson, The Education of the
235
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
Negro Prior to 1861, supra, pp . 151-178;
Ladson-Billings, Achievement Gap
to the Education Debt, supra, p . 5 .
26 Span, supra, pp . 27-28; Cornelius, “We
Slipped and Learned to Read:” Slave
Accounts of the Literacy Process, 1830-
1865 (1983) 44 Phylon 171, 174 .
27 Woodson, The Education of the Negro
Prior to 1861, supra, pp . 70-92 .
28 Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick
Douglass, an American Slave (1845)
Electronic Edition, pp . 49 .
29 Langhorne, The African American
Community: Circumventing the
Compulsory Education System (2000)
33 Beverly Hills Bar Assn . J . 12, 13 .
30 Bracey, The Significance of Historically
Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)
in the 21st Century: Will Such Institutions
of Higher Learning Survive? (2017) 76
Am . J . Econ . & Socio . 670, 671 (here-
after Significance of HBCUs) .
31 Sambol-Tosco, The Slave Experience,
supra, p . 2; Bell, Silent
Covenants, supra, at p . 52 .
32 Woodson, The Education of the Negro
Prior to 1861, supra, pp . 10-11; Sambol-
Tosco, The Slave Experience, supra, p .
2 . In 1857 , the Supreme Court held in
Dred Scott that Black people were not
citizens and, as such, gave the states
express permission to deny Black people
equal rights, including to education .
Scott v. Sandford (1857) 60 U .S . 393 .
33 May, Some Recollections of Our Antislavery
Conflict (1869) pp . 52-53
(as of June 24, 2021) .
34 Ibid .
35 Id. at p . 50 .
36 Id. at p . 52 .
37 Id. at pp . 70-71 .
38 Id. at p . 71 .
39 Id. at pp . 71-72 .
40 See Ladson-Billings, Achievement Gap to
the Education Debt, supra, p . 6 (noting that
by 1860, New England was home to 472
cotton mills and between 1830 and 1840,
Northern mills consumed more than
100 million pounds of Southern cotton) .
41 Encyclopedia .com, Impact of Slavery on
the Northern Economy (as of Jan . 26, 2022) .
42 Farrow et al ., Complicity, supra, p . 141 .
43 Woodson, The Education of the Negro
Prior to 1861, supra, p . 15 .
44 Bracey, Significance of HBCUs, supra, p .
675; Office for Civil Rights, Historically
Black Colleges and Universities and Higher
Education Desegregation, U .S . Dept . of
Ed . (Mar . 1991) (as of June 21, 2021)
(hereafter HBCUs and Desegregation) .
45 Bracey, Significance of HBCUs, supra, p .
676; Office for Civil Rights, HBCUs
and Desegregation, supra .
46 Harper et al ., Access and Equity for
African American Students in Higher
Education: A Critical Race Historical
Analysis of Policy Efforts (2009) 80 J . of
Higher Ed . 389, 393 (hereafter Access
and Equity); Roebuck and Murty,
Historically Black Colleges and Universities:
Their Place in American Higher Education
(1993) p . 22 (“[O]nly twenty-eight
blacks received baccalaureate de-
grees . . . prior to the Civil War .”)
47 Hudson, West of Jim Crow, supra, pp . 22-
23; .see, e .g ., In re Perkins (1852) 2 Cal .
424, 437-441, 454-457 (upholding 1852
Fugitive Slave Act, affirming that enslav-
ers who brought enslaved persons from
other states were not affected by the
anti-slavery clause in the constitution);
Gold Chains: The Hidden History of Slavery
in California, ACLU (as of June 24, 2021) .
48 E .g ., Don Wilson Builders v. Superior Ct. for
Los Angeles County (1963) 220 Cal .App .2d
77 , 89 (dis . opn . of Fourt, J .) (“California
history indicates that at the time the
state was organized in 1849 and for
some several years thereafter many
southerners were influential in the state
government and otherwise and their
influence is reflected in many statutes .
The statutes of 1850, ch . 140, p . 424,
set forth the law against miscegena-
tion and such remained the law in one
form or another until 1948 [] .”); Smith,
Remaking Slavery in a Free State: Masters
and Slaves in Gold Rush California (2011)
80 Pacific Historical Rev . 28, 49-50 .
49 Hudson, West of Jim Crow,
supra, pp . 19, 31 .
50 Id. at p . 32 (citing Moulder, Annual
Report of the State Superintendent of
Public Instruction (1858) S .F . Public
Library Archives, p . 14) .
51 Hendrick, The Education of Non-Whites in
California, supra, p . 7; see also Hudson,
West of Jim Crow, supra, p . 32; Wollenberg,
All Deliberate Speed, supra, p . 12; see
Stats . 1855, ch . 185, § 12, p . 232 .
52 Ibid .; see also Hendrick, The Education
of Non-Whites in California, supra,
pp . 7-8; Wollenberg, All Deliberate
Speed, supra, p . 12, fn . 10; see Stats .
1855, ch . 185, § 12, p . 232 .
53 Wollenberg, All Deliberate Speed, supra,
p . 10 .
54 Id. at p . 11 .
55 Id. at p . 14 .
56 Id. at pp . 14, 17 .
57 Hudson, West of Jim Crow,
supra, pp . 31-32 .
58 Wollenberg, All Deliberate Speed, supra,
p . 16 .
59 Anderson, supra, at p . 5 .
60 Du Bois and Dill, The Common School,
supra, pp . 19-22; John Hope Franklin,
Reconstruction after the Civil War (2d
ed ., 1994) pp . 107-113; Burnette II,
Do America’s Public Schools?, supra .
61 See Franklin, Reconstruction after the Civil
War, supra, pp . 107-113; Tyack and Lowe,
The Constitutional Moment: Reconstruction
and Black Education in the South (1986) 94
Am . J . Ed . 236, 238; Gershon, Bringing
Universal Education to the South (Jan . 24,
2018) JSTOR Daily (as of May 3, 2022) .
62 Burnette II, Do America’s Public Schools?,
supra; Jim Crow Laws (Feb . 21, 2021)
History (as of June 21, 2021); see also
South Carolina, supra, 383 U .S . at p . 301,
310-13, 311 (noting that Southern states
“rapidly instituted racial segregation
in their public schools” following the
Civil War and discussing the interplay
between efforts to restrict literacy
and efforts to restrict the vote) .
63 Blackmon, Slavery by Another Name: The
Re-Enslavement of African Americans
from the Civil War to World War II
236
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
(2008) pp . 105 & fn . 40 (hereaf-
ter Slavery by Another Name) .
64 See National Geographic, The Black
Codes and Jim Crow Laws
(as of June 24, 2021) .
65 Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk: Essays
and Sketches (2d ed . 1903); Tyack & Lowe,
supra, pp . 238-239, 250-252; Anderson,
supra, at pp . 95-96 (“From the vantage
point of the southern white majority,
any system of universal education for
blacks, even industrial education, would
potentially lead to universal suffrage .”) .
66 Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The
Definitive History of Racist Ideas in
America (2017) p . 273; Blackmon,
Slavery by Another Name, supra, at fn .
63, pp . 121-122; Greenblatt, The Racial
History of the ‘Grandfather Clause’, NPR
(Oct . 22, 2013) (as of July 15, 2020) .
67 Du Bois, et al ., The Common School
and the Negro American:
Report of a Social Study, Atlanta
University (May 30, 1911) p . 22 .
68 Du Bois and Dill, The Common School,
supra, p . 21; Franklin, Reconstruction
after the Civil War, supra, at fn .
60, pp . 107-113; Burnette II, Do
America’s Public Schools?, supra .
69 Du Bois and Dill, The Common School,
supra, pp . 19-21; Tyack & Lowe, su-
pra, at pp . 238-239, 243-249 .
70 Burnette II, Do America’s Public Schools?,
supra .
71 United States Senate, Freedmen's Bureau
Acts (1865 And 1868) (as of June
18, 2021); Du Bois and Dill, The
Common School, supra, p . 19 .
72 Nat . Archives, The Freedmen’s Bureau (as
of Apr . 26, 2022) .
73 Antietam National Battlefield, African
Americans and Education During
Reconstruction: The Tolson’s Chapel
Schools (as of Mar . 11, 2022) .
74 Ibid .
75 Ibid .
76 Ibid .
77 Ibid .
78 The North Carolina Collection –
Durham County Library, The Women
Who Ran the Schools: The Jeanes Teachers
and Durham County’s Rural Black
Schools (As of March 10, 2022) .
79 McHugh, Denied a Teaching Job for Being
“too Black,” She Started Her Own
School – and a Movement, The
Wash . Post (February 2021) .
80 Ibid .
81 Ibid .
82 Coates, The Case for Reparations, The
Atlantic (Jun . 2014) (as of June 21, 2021);
Du Bois and Dill, The Common School,
supra, p . 117 (in 1909 in one county
in Georgia, “five school houses for
colored children, with their contents,
have been burned” and over the last
few years “burning of Negro school
houses . . . by white neighbors had
been frequent in the gulf states”) .
83 Bell, Silent Covenants, supra, p . 91; Darity
Jr . and Mullen, From Here to Equality:
Reparations for African Americans in
the Twenty-First Century (2020) p . 210
(hereafter From Here to Equality) .
84 Cummings v. Board of Ed. of Richmond
County (1899) 175 U .S . 528, 530, 542
(court will not intervene in case where
county closed a Black high school and
used the “funds in hand”, including
tax dollars from Black residents, to
support a white high school to which
Black students were denied entry) .
85 See Blackmon, Slavery by Another Name,
supra, p . 93 .
86 Id. at pp . 93, 97 .
87 Id. at pp . 100-102 .
88 Orfield and Jarvie, Black Segregation
Matters, supra, pp . 4-6 .
89 E .g ., United States v. Stanley (Civil Rights
Cases) (1883) 109 U .S . 3, 13, 25 .
90 Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) 163 U .S . 537 ,
546-548, 550-552 .
91 Ladson-Billings, Achievement Gap to the
Education Debt, supra, p . 5 .
92 Foner, Reconstruction: America’s
Unfinished Revolution, 1863-
1877 (2014 ed .) p . 422 .
93 See Ibid .
94 See Ibid .; cf . generally Du Bois and Dill,
The Common School, supra .
95 See Foner, supra, p . 422; Wilkerson, The
Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of
America’s Great Migration, pp . 85-86 (2010)
(hereafter The Warmth of Other Suns) .
96 Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns,
supra .
97 Id. at p . 86 .
98 Anderson, supra, at pp . 183-184; Du
Bois and Dill, The Common School, supra,
pp . 7-8 (Black people “themselves have
purchased school sites, school houses
and school furniture, thus being a pecu-
liar way double taxed” and are “paying
into the school fund” in taxes much
more than they are receiving in “actual
appropriations for school facilities .”) .
99 Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns,
supra, pp . 84-86 .
100 Blackmon, Slavery by Another Name,
supra, p . 157 .
101 See, e .g ., Du Bois and Dill, The Common
School, supra, p . 136 .
102 See, e .g ., id. at pp . 40, 52-53, 57 , 59, 63,
65, 78-79 .
103 Id. at pp . 100-107 .
104 Id. at p . 3 .
105 Bell, Silent Covenants, supra, p . 15 (citing
Tushnet, The NAACP’s Legal Strategy Against
Segregated Education, 1925-1950 (Chapel
Hill: University of North Carolina Press,
1987), pp . 5-6); Darity Jr . and Mullen,
From Here to Equality, supra, p . 230 (citing
Bond, The Education of the Negro in the
American Social Order, 46); Du Bois and
Dill, The Common School, supra, pp . 29-31;
118 (report that in Mississippi counties
draw their share of funding accord-
ing to the number of white and black
children but spend the money almost
exclusively on the white children) .
106 Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns:
The Epic Story of America’s Great
Migration, p . 88 (2010) .
107 Ibid .
108 Ibid .
109 See, e .g ., Du Bois and Dill, The
Common School, supra, pp . 52; see also
Ibid . at pp . 57 , 59-60, 101 (describing
237
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
differences in months of operation for
black and white schools in Georgia and
South Carolina); Brooker, The Education
of Black Children in the Jim Crow South,
America’s Black Holocaust Museum:
Bringing Our History to Light (as of June
18, 2021); Ladson-Billings, Achievement
Gap to the Education Debt, supra, p . 5 .
110 Brooker, supra; Ladson-Billings,
Achievement Gap to the Education Debt,
supra, p . 5; see, e .g ., Du Bois and Dill, The
Common School, supra, pp . 52-54, 58, 101 .
111 Du Bois, Does the Negro Need Separate
Schools? (1935) 4 The J . of
Negro Education, p . 328 .
112 Ibid .
113 Id. at pp . 328-329 .
114 Coates, The Case for Reparations, The
Atlantic (June 2014) (as of Nov . 19, 2021) .
115 Ibid .
116 Compare Du Bois and Dill, The
Common School, supra, p . 16 with Tapia et
al ., The Uneven Transition Toward Universal
Literacy in Spain, 1860-1930 (2021) 50
Hist . of Educ . 605, 609; Nat . Bureau
of Economic Research (Working Paper
No . 173) p . 26 (Spain’s literacy rate was
38 .1% in 1887 and 44 .8% in 1990); Tapia
et al ., Two Stories, One Fate: Age-Heaping
and Literacy in Spain, 1877-1930 (2018)
National Bureau of Economic Research
(Working Paper No . 139) p . 5 (literacy
rate in Italy was similarly poor as Spain
and was below 50% in the nineteenth
century); see also National Center for
Education Statistics, National Assessment
of Adult Literacy, 120 Years of American
Education: A Statistical Portrait (as of Jan .
26, 2022) (Black literacy rose from
20 percent in 1870 to 70 percent by
1910, close to 80 percent by 1920) .
117 Bertocchi and Dimico, The Racial Gap in
Education and the Legacy of Slavery (2012)
40 J . Comp . Econ . 581, 581-582 .
(hereafter The Racial Gap in Education)
118 Burnette II, Do America’s Public Schools?,
supra .
119 Brown, supra, 347 U .S . at p . 495 . The
idea that segregated schools were
“equal” was unfounded—segregat-
ed public schools for Black students
provided unequal education in nearly
every category when compared to public
schools for white students . See Margo,
Race and Schooling in the South 1880-1950:
An Economic History (1990) pp . 18-20 .
120 Horsford and McKenzie, Exploring
Black Superintendent Perspectives, supra, p .
444; see, e .g ., Griffin v. County School Bd .
(1964) 377 U .S . 218, 221 (school districts
closed public schools rather than inte-
grate, cut off funding for public schools
and instead provided private vouch-
ers for private schools, then delayed
adoption of integration plan); Green v.
County School Bd. (1968) 391 U .S . 430,
433 (Green) (school board automatically
reassigned children to schools they had
attended the prior year, preventing
integration); Goss v. Bd. of Ed. of City of
Knoxville (1963) 373 U .S . 683, 686-687
(school board allowed students to re-
quest to be transferred if they had been
assigned to a school previously attended
only by members of a different race) .
121 Driver, Supremacies and the Southern
Manifesto (2014) 92 Tex . L . Rev . 1053,
1054, 1066-1067 , 1079 (nineteen out
of the twenty-two Southern senators
signed the Manifesto and declared
their aim to reverse Brown using all
lawful means); see Ogletree, Tulsa
Reparations: The Survivor’s Story (2004) 24
B .C . Third World L .J . 13, 22 (noting that
“[s]ince the end of slavery, whites have
resisted the challenge of integration
and found more or less sophisticated
ways by which to resist the efforts of
African Americans to participate on
equal terms in American society”) .
122 Equal Justice Initiative, Supreme Court
Bans School Segregation, Sparking Massive
White Resistance (as of May 5, 2021);
Bennett, Little Rock Nine: Decades-long
Battle for School Equity Began with Nine Black
Students Facing Angry White Mob (Sept .
25, 2020) Southern Poverty Law Center
(as of Nov . 19, 2021); Zinn Education
Project, Sept 12, 1958: Little Rock Public
Schools Closed, (as of Apr . 27 , 2022) .
123 Ross and Key, In the Wake of Central
High Crisis, Crime and Injustice, Arkansas
Times (Oct . 27 , 2020) (as of Nov . 19, 2021) .
124 Bell, Silent Covenants, supra, p . 100 .
125 Ibid .
126 Id. at pp . 100-102 .
127 Ibid .
128 Ibid .
129 Schofield, School Desegregation and
Intergroup Relations: A Review of the
Literature (1991) 17 Rev . of Research
in Education 335, 335; Horsford and
McKenzie, Exploring Black Superintendent
Perspectives, supra, pp . 448-49; Bell,
Silent Covenants, supra, p . 100 .
130 E .g ., Equal Justice Initiative, Georgia
Governor Proposes Abolition of
Public School System to Avoid
Integration (as of Nov . 19, 2021) .
131 E .g ., Ibid .
132 Brown v. Board of Educ. of Topeka, Kan.
(1955) 349 U .S . 294, 300 .
133 Bell, Silent Covenants, supra, p . 95; see
also Carter, The Warren Court
and Desegregation (1968) 67
Mich . L . Rev . 237 , 243 .
134 See Alexander v. Holmes County Bd. of Ed.
(1969) 396 U .S . 19, 20-21 .
135 Equal Justice Initiative, Supreme Court
Bans School Segregation, Sparking Massive
White Resistance (as of May 5, 2021) .
136 See Tate et al ., The Brown Decision
Revisited: Mathematizing a Social Problem
(1993) 7 Educational Policy 255, 259-268;
Ladson-Billings, Landing on the Wrong
Note: The Price We Paid for Brown (2004)
33 Education Researcher 3, 6 (noting
that one of consequences of Brown
included the “job loss and demotions
for Black teachers and administrators”) .
137 Horsford and McKenzie, Exploring
Black Superintendent Perspectives, su-
pra, p . 447; Toppo, Thousands of Black
Teachers Lost Jobs, USA Today (Apr .
28, 2004) (as of June 21, 2021) .
138 Ibid .
139 Horsford and McKenzie, Exploring
Black Superintendent
Perspectives, supra, p . 449 .
140 Ibid .; Tillman, (Un)Intended
Consequences?: The Impact of the Brown
v. Board of Education Decision on the
Employment Status of Black Educators
238
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
(2004) 36 Educ . & Urban Soc . 280,
287-288; Will, 65 Years After ‘Brown v.
Board,’ Where Are All the Black Educators?,
Education Week (May 14, 2019) (as
of June 23, 2021); Ethridge, Impact
of the 1954 Brown vs. Topeka Board of
Education Decision on Black Educators
(1979) 30 Negro Ed . Rev . 217 , 223 .
141 Fultz, The Displacement of Black Educators
Post-Brown: An Overview and Analysis
(2004) 44 Hist . Ed . Q . 11, 37; see Tillman,
supra, p . 288 (noting that firing of Black
educators affected their communities
economically); Ethridge, supra, , p . 224 .
142 Fultz, supra, pp . 28-29; Tillman, supra,
p . 294; Toppo, Thousands of Black Teachers
Lost Jobs, USA Today (Apr . 28, 2004) (as
of June 23, 2021); see Jones-Wilson,
Race, Realities, and American Educators:
Two Sides of the Coin (1990) 59 J . of Negro
Ed . 119, 121; Walker, The Architects of
Black Schooling in the Segregated South: The
Case of One Principal Leader (2003) 19 J .
of Curriculum & Supervision 54, 56 .
143 Gershenson et al ., The Long-Run
Impacts of Same-Race Teachers (Nov . 2018)
National Bureau of Economic Research
(Working Paper No . 25254) pp . 1-2, 33
(finding that Black students with at least
one Black teacher in K -3 are 13% more
likely to graduate high school and 19%
more likely to enroll in college than their
Black peers who had no Black teachers) .
144 Will, Still Mostly White and Female: New
Federal Data on the Teaching Profession,
Education Week (Apr . 14, 2020) (as
of June 21, 2021); Gewertz, Survey of
Mostly-White Educators Finds 1 in 5 Think
Textbooks Accurately Reflect People of Color,
Education Week (June 29, 2020) (as
of June 22, 2021) (hereafter Survey of
Mostly-White Educators); U .S . Dept . of Ed .,
The State of Racial Diversity in the Educator
Workforce (2016) pp . 2, 6, 7 , 9 (as of June
21, 2021); Modan, Survey: Superintendents
still overwhelmingly white, male, K -12 Dive
(Feb . 11, 2020) (as of May 6, 2022) .
145 Will, Still Mostly White and Female: New
Federal Data on the Teaching Profession,
Education Week (Apr . 14, 2020) (as of
June 21, 2021); U .S . Dept . of Ed ., The State
of Racial Diversity in the Educator Workforce
(2016) pp . 2, 6 (as of June 21, 2021) .
146 Nat . School Boards Assn ., Black
Students in the Condition of Education 2020
(June 23, 2020) (as of Jan . 26, 2022) .
147 Rothstein, The Color of Law, supra, at
fn . 13, preface .
148 See Burnette II, As Districts Seek Revenue
Due to Pandemic, Black Homeowners May
Feel the Biggest Hit, Education Week (July
23, 2020) (as of June 22, 2021); Oliver
and Shapiro, Black Wealth/White Wealth:
A New Perspective on Racial Inequality
(1995) pp . 8-9, 19-20; Guastaferro,
Why Racial Inequities in America's Schools
are Rooted in Housing Policies of the
Past, USA Today (Nov . 2, 2020) (as of
June 23, 2021) (hereafter Why Racial
Inequities are Rooted in Housing Policies) .
149 Demand for School Integration Leads to
Massive 1964 Boycott – in New York
City, N .Y . Public Radio (Feb . 3,
2016) (as of Nov . 19, 2021) .
150 Ibid .; Ladson-Billings, Achievement Gap
to the Education Debt, supra, at fn . 2, p .
5; see generally Du Bois & and Dill,
The Common School, supra, at fn . 8 .
151 Bell, Silent Covenants, supra, at fn . 5, pp .
109-112; Wollenberg, All Deliberate
Speed, supra, at fn . 12, pp . 142, 146 .
152 Demand for School Integration Leads to
Massive 1964 Boycott – in New York
City, N .Y . Public Radio (Feb . 3,
2016) (as of Nov . 19, 2021) .
153 Ibid .
154 Equal Justice Initiative, Resistance to
School Desegregation (March 1,
2014) (as of June 21, 2021) .
155 Wollenberg, All Deliberate Speed, supra,
at fn . 12, pp . 147-148 .
156 Kerner, Report of the National Advisory
Commission on Civil Disorders:
Summary of Report (1968) pp . 1,
5-6 (as of June 21, 2021) .
157 Graham, Richard Nixon and Civil Rights:
Explaining an Enigma (1996)
26 Presidential Studies
Quarterly 93, 94, 101 .
158 Orfield and Jarvie, Black Segregation
Matters, supra, at fn . 2, p . 22; see
also Orfield, Schools More Separate:
Consequences of A Decade of Resegregation,
The Civil Rights Project, Harvard
University (July, 2001) p . 25 (as of July 1,
2021) (hereafter Schools More Separate)
(26 central cities house districts which
enroll 1/10 of the nation’s students, but
only a minute fraction of the nation’s
white student; five school districts
were more than 90% nonwhite, while
a large majority of the others had
less than one-fifth white students) .
159 Boston Research Center, Encyclopedia
of Boston, Desegregation Busing
(as of Jan . 26, 2022 .)
160 History, This Day in History, Violence
erupts in Boston over Desegregation Busing
(as of Jan . 26, 2022); Bubar, The Jim
Crow North, Upfront: The N .Y . Times
(March 9 2020) (as of Jan . 26, 2022) .
161 Milliken v. Bradley (1974) 418 U .S . 717 , 752 .
162 See e .g ., Bell, Silent Covenants, supra, at
fn . 5, p . 112 .
163 Goldstein, Detroit Students Have a
Constitutional Right to Literacy, Court
Rules, The N .Y . Times (April 27 ,
2020) (as of June 22, 2021); see
Bell, supra, at fn . 5, pp . 111-112;
164 Village of Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan
Housing Development Corp .
(1977) 429 U .S . 252 .
165 Bell, Silent Covenants, su-
pra, at fn . 5, p . 110 .
166 Id. at p . 114; Orfield and Jarvie, Black
Segregation Matters, su-
pra, at fn . 2, pp . 12-13 .
167 Bell, Silent Covenants, su-
pra, at fn . 5, p . 114 .
168 See id. at pp . 110-113; Orfield, Schools
More Separate, supra, pp . 1-2; see also
Orfield and Jarvie, Black Segregation
Matters, supra, at fn . 2, p . 6 (“Intense
segregation, in 90-100% non-White
schools, fell very sharply from 78% of
Black students in 1968 to 24% in the
South states by 1988, but [by 2020]
has now risen back to 37%[ .]”) .
169 Orfield, Schools More Separate, supra,
pp . 15-44 .
170 Ibid . (citing Board of Education of
Oklahoma City vs. Dowell (1991), Freeman v.
Pitts (1992), and Missouri v. Jenkins (1995)) .
239
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
171 Parents Involved in Community Schools v.
Seattle School Dist. No . 1 (2007) 551 U .S . 701 .
172 Orfield and Siegel-Hawley, E Pluribus . .
. Separation, Deepening Double Segregation
for More Students, UCLA Civil
Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos
Civiles (Sept . 2012) p . 7 (as
of Apr . 29, 2022) .
173 Meatto, Still Separate, Still Unequal:
Teaching about School Segregation and
Educational Inequality, N .Y . Times (May 2,
2019) (as of June 21, 2021) (“More than
half of the nation’s schoolchildren are
in racially concentrated districts, where
over 75 percent of students are either
white or nonwhite .”); Bracey, Significance
of HBCUs, supra, p . 687; Toppo, GAO
Study: Segregation Worsening in U.S. Schools,
USA Today (May 17 , 2016) (as of June 22,
2021); Guastaferro, Why Racial Inequities
are Rooted in Housing Policies, supra
(discussing study showing that pre-
dominantly nonwhite school districts
received $23 billion less in state and
local funding than majority white school
districts in 2016); Orfield and Jarvie,
Black Segregation Matters, supra, pp . 6, 28 .
174 Orfield and Jarvie, Black Segregation
Matters, supra. at fn . 2, p . 28 .
175 Woodson, The Mis-Education
of the Negro (1933) .
176 Ed . Week, Tracking (Sept . 21, 2004) (as
of June 24, 2021); Oakes et al ., Multiplying
Inequalities: The Effects of Race, Social Class,
and Tracking on Opportunities to Learn
Mathematics and Science (1990) pp . 18-19
& fn . 6 (“[W]e are dealing with teach-
ers’ perceptions of ability—we cannot
assume that ability means the same
thing from teacher to teacher, or from
school to school .”) (hereafter Multiplying
Inequalities); Anderson and Oakes, The
Truth About Tracking in The Big Lies of School
Reform: Finding Better Solutions for the Futile
Public Education (2014) pp . 113-114 (de-
scribing the arbitrary nature of tracking)
(hereafter The Truth About Tracking) .
177 Horsford and McKenzie, Exploring
Black Superintendent Perspectives, supra, at
fn . 10, p . 452; Oakes, Two Cities’ Tracking
and Within-School Segregation (1995) 96
Teachers College Record 681 (as of June
24, 2021); Oakes, Keeping Track: How
Schools Structure Inequality (2005) pp .
11-12, 40, 64-65; Oakes et al ., Detracking:
The Social Construction of Ability, Cultural
Politics, and Resistance to Reform (1997) 98
Teachers College Record 482, 490-491,
496-500; Artiles et al ., Culturally Diverse
Students in Special Education: Legacies and
Prospects, in Handbook of Research
on Multicultural Education (2d ed .
2004) p . 716 (finding that many stu-
dents because of factors including race
are disproportionately referred and
placed in special education programs);
Conger, Within-School Segregation in an
Urban School District (2005) 27 Ed . Eval .
& Policy Analysis 225, 237-238; Saddler,
The Impact of Brown on African American
Students: A Critical Race Theoretical
Perspective (2005) 37 Ed . Studies 41, 44
(observing that Black students are three
times more likely to be placed in special
education classes and more likely to be
placed in vocational tracks); Oakes et al .,
Multiplying Inequalities, supra, pp . 18-25 .
178 Bell, Silent Covenants, supra, at fn . 5, p .
112; see Kohli and Quartz, Modern-
Day Segregation in Public Schools, The
Atlantic, (Nov . 18, 2014); Mathis,
Moving Beyond Tracking, National
Education Policy Center (May 2013)
(“[Tracking] generally plays out in
a discriminatory way, segregating
students by race and socio-econom-
ic status .”) (as of June 25, 2021) .
179 Darity Jr . and Mullen, From Here to
Equality, supra, p . 220; Oakes et al .,,
Multiplying Inequalities, supra, pp . 18,
23; Anderson & and Oakes, The Truth
About Tracking, supra, pp . 118 (dis-
cussing their research finding that
“ African American and Latino students
were much less likely than White or
Asian students with the same test scores
to be placed in high-ability classes”)
(hereafter The Truth About Tracking) .
180 Horsford and McKenzie, Exploring
Black Superintendent Perspectives,
supra, at fn . 10, pp . 451-452 .
181 Anderson and Oakes, The Truth About
Tracking, supra, pp . 114-118 (“in every
aspect of what makes for a quality
education, kids in lower tracks typically
get less than those in higher tracks and
gifted programs”); Mathis, supra, (“Low-
track classes tend to have watered-down
curriculum, less experienced teachers,
lowered expectations, more discipline
problems, and less engaging lessons .”)
(as of June 25, 2021); Oakes et al .,
Multiplying Inequalities, supra, pp . 104-105
(“Students judged to have low ability
may get less because they are thought to
need less (they are considered unable
to benefit) or deserve less (they are
considered unwilling to benefit) .”) .
182 California Task Force to Study and
Develop Reparation Proposals
for African Americans (October
12, 2021) Testimony of Dr. Rucker
Johnson (as of Jan . 28, 2022) .
183 Bell, Silent Covenants, supra, at fn . 5, pp .
127-129; Ladson-Billings, Achievement
Gap to the Education Debt, supra, at fn . 2,
p . 9 (“If we are unwilling to desegregate
our schools and unwilling to fund them
equitably, we find ourselves not only
backing away from the promise of the
Brown decision but literally refusing
even to take Plessy seriously . At least a se-
rious consideration of Plessy would make
us look at funding inequities .”); Kozol,
Savage Inequalities: Children in American
Schools (1991) pp . 3-6; Kozol, The Shame
of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid
Schooling in America (2005) pp . 18-21 .
184 U .S . Government Accountability
Office, GAO-20-494, K -12 Education:
School Districts Frequently Identified
Multiple Building Systems Needing
Updates or Replacement (June
2020) (as of July 1, 2021) .
185 Shores et al ., Categorical Inequalities
Between Black and White Students are
Common in US Schools—But They Don’t
Have to Be, Brookings Institute (Feb .
21, 2020) (as of June 21, 2021) .
186 Bracey, Significance of HBCUs, supra, pp .
687-688; Kerr, Report Finds Segregation
in Education on the Rise, AP News (May
17 , 2016) (as of June 23, 2021); Office
for Civil Rights, 2015-16 Civil Rights Data
Collection: Stem Course Taking, U .S . Dept .
of Ed . (2018) at p . 5 fig .4 (as of July 1,
2021); compare College Board, AP Cohort
Data Report: Graduating Class of 2020
240
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
(2020) p . 20 with Handwerk et al ., Access
to Success: Patterns of Advanced Placement
Participation in U.S. High Schools (July 2008)
p . 7 (as of July 1, 2021) (Black students
were 14 .2% of all public high school se-
niors in 2020, but only 8 .3% of students
nationwide who took an AP exam—an
increase of only 1 .3% since 2006) .
187 Irizarry, On Track or Derailed? Race,
Advanced Math, and the Transition
to High School (2021) 7 Socius 1,
12-13 (as of Jan . 28, 2022) .
188 Hammond, Inequality in Teaching and
Schooling: How Opportunity is Rationed
to Students of Color in America, in The
Right Thing to Do, The Smart Thing to Do:
Enhancing Diversity in Health Professions,
Summary of the Symposium on
Diversity in Health Professions in Honor
of Herbert W .Nickens, M .D ., National
Academies Press (2001) pp . 208-209;
Grissom and Redding, Discretion
and Disproportionality: Explaining the
Underrepresentation of High-Achieving
Students of Color in Gifted Programs (2016)
2 Aera Open 1, 1-2; The Education Trust,
Inequities in Advanced Coursework: What’s
Driving Them and What Leaders Can Do
(2019), at p . 8 (“Our analysis [of the 2015-
16 CRDC data] shows that although Black
students make up 16% of elementary
schoolers, they make up only 9% of stu-
dents in gifted and talented programs .”);
Llahamon, Office for Civil Rights, Dear
Colleague Letter: Resource Comparability,
U .S . Dept . of Ed . (Oct . 1, 2014), p . 4 (as
of July 1, 2021); Office for Civil Rights,
2011-12 Civil Rights Data Collection, Data
Snapshot: Teacher Equity, U .S . Dept . of Ed .
(2014) (as of July 1, 2021); Adamson and
Darling-Hammond, Funding Disparities
and the Inequitable Distribution of Teachers:
Evaluating Sources and Solutions (2012) 20
Ed . Policy Analysis Archives 1, 30-32;
Whitaker et al ., Cops and No Counselors:
How the Lack of School Mental Health Staff is
Harming Students, ACLU (2019) p . 7 (find-
ing that students of color are more likely
to attend schools with law enforcement
officers, be referred to law enforcement,
and be arrested, and “students who
attend schools with high percentages
of Black students . . . are more likely
to attend schools with tough security
measures like metal detectors, random
‘contraband’ sweeps, security guards,
and security cameras”) (as of June 23,
2021) (hereafter Cops and No Counselors) .
189 Toldson, Breaking Barriers: Plotting the
Path to Academic Success for School-
Age African American Males,
Congressional Black Caucus
Foundation, Inc . p . 46 (2008) .
190 Id. at p . 23 .
191 Powers et al ., Twenty-five Years after
Larry P.: The California Response to
Overrepresentation of African Americans in
Special Education (2004) 9 The California
School Psychologist 145, 155 (hereaf-
ter Twenty-five Years after Larry P .) .
192 E .g ., Office for Civil Rights, Education
in a Pandemic: The Disparate Impacts of
COVID-19 on America’s Students, U .S .
Dept . of Ed . (2021) p . 10 (citing Shores
et al ., Categorical Inequality in Black and
White: Linking Disproportionality across
Multiple Educational Outcomes, 57 Am .
Ed . Research J . 2089, 2097 (2020)) .
193 Bellan, $23 Billion: Education Funding
Report Reveals Less Money for City Kids,
Bloomberg .com (March 27 , 2019) (as
of June 21, 2021); Mervosh, How Much
Wealthier Are White School Districts than
Nonwhite Ones? $23 Billion, Report Says,
The N .Y . Times (Feb . 27 , 2019) (as of
June 21, 2021); Carey, Rich Schools, Poor
Schools and a Biden Plan, The N .Y . Times
(June 9, 2021) (reporting that “districts
where more than 75 percent of stu-
dents are white receive $23 billion more
per year than districts where more
than 75 percent of students are not
white — even though there are more
students in predominantly nonwhite
districts”) (as of June 25, 2021) .
194 EdBuild, $23 Billion (Feb . 2019) pp . 4-5
(as of June 25, 2021) .
195 Carey, supra; Carey and Harris, It Turns
Out Spending More Probably Does Improve
Education, The N .Y . Times (Dec . 12, 2016)
(as of June 25, 2021); Lafortune et al .,
School Finance Reform and the Distribution of
Student Achievement (2018) 10 Am . Econ . J .:
Applied Econs . 1, 24 (finding that “mon-
ey can and does matter in education”) .
196 Reparations 4 Slavery, The Movement
for Black Lives (as of June 21, 2021);
Vazquez-Martinez et al ., Unsafe
School Facilities Reinforce Educational
Inequities Among Marginalized Students,
Brookings Institute (Sept . 1, 2020)
(as of July 1, 2021); U .S . Government
Accountability Office, GAO-20-494,
K -12 Education: School Districts Frequently
Identified Multiple Building Systems
Needing Updates or Replacement (June
2020) (as of July 1, 2021); Kelley, Study
Unlocks Why Decrepit Schools Mean
Poor Test Scores, Cornell Chronicle
(July 20, 2016) (as of Apr . 29, 2022) .
197 Rosenbaum, Educational and Criminal
Justice Outcomes 12 Years After School
Suspension, Youth & Soc’y (Jan . 17 , 2018)
(finding that suspended youth were less
likely to have graduated from college
or high school, and were more likely to
have been arrested and on probation);
Gordon, Disproportionality in Student
Discipline: Connecting Policy to Research,
Brookings Institute (Jan . 18, 2018) (as of
June 21, 2021) (hereafter Disproportionality
in Student Discipline); Losen and Martin,
The Unequal Impact of Suspension on the
Opportunity to Learn in California: What
the 2016-2017 Rates Tell Us about Progress,
The Center for Civil Rights Remedies
(2018) pp . 7-9, 12; Losen and Whitaker,
Lost Instruction: The Disparate Impact of
the School Discipline Gap in California, The
Center for Civil Rights Remedies (2017)
pp . 8-9; The Council on State Gov . &
Pub . Policy Research Inst . at Tex . A&M
Univ ., Breaking Schools’ Rules: A Statewide
Study on How School Discipline Relates
to Students’ Success and Juvenile Justice
Involvement (July 2011) (as of July 1, 2021) .
198 Gordon, Disproportionality in Student
Discipline, supra, p . 6; Skiba et al.,
The Color of Discipline: Sources of Racial
and Gender Disproportionality in School
Punishment (2002) 34 Urban Rev . 317 ,
318-319, 333 (finding that “[c]ontrary
to the socioeconomic hypothesis, the
current investigation demonstrates that
significant racial disparities in school
discipline remain even after controlling
for socioeconomic status”); see CADRE
et al ., Redefining Dignity in Our Schools:
A Shadow Report on School-Wide Positive
241
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
Behavior Support Implementation in South
Los Angeles, 2007-2010 (June, 2010) pp .
6-7 , 12; Into New Rules for Schools: Remote
Learning Means Remote School Discipline.
But Not All Kids Are Treated Equally, MSNBC
(Sept . 14, 2020) (as of June 25, 2021) .
199 National Public Radio, Code Switch,
Black Preschoolers Far More Likely
to Be Suspended (March 21,
2014) (as of Jan . 26, 2022) .
200 Gordon, Disproportionality in Student
Discipline, supra; U .S . Government
Accountability Office, GAO 18-258,
K -12 Education: Discipline Disparities
for Black Students, Boys, and Students
with Disabilities (Mar . 2018) .
201 Office for Civil Rights, Civil Rights Data
Collection (for 2017-18 School Year), U .S .
Dept . of Ed . (Oct . 14, 2020) (as of July 1,
2021); see also Green et al ., ‘ A Battle for
the Souls of Black Girls’, The N .Y . Times
(Oct . 1, 2020) (“The disproportionate
discipline rates among girls indicate
what researchers have long said about
all Black children: It is not that they
misbehave more than their peers,
but their behaviors may be judged
more harshly .”) (as of June 25, 2021) .
202 Rocque and Paternoster, Understanding
the Antecedents of the 'School-to-Jail'
Link: The Relationship Between Race and
School Discipline (2011) 101 The J . of
Crim . L . & Criminology 633, 653-54 .
203 Morris and Perry, The Punishment Gap:
School Suspension and Racial
Disparities in Achievement (2016) 63
J . Social Problems 68, 68-69 .
204 Whitaker et al ., Cops and No Counselors,
supra, p . 7 .
205 E .g ., ACLU, The Right to Remain A
Student: How California School Policies
Fail to Protect and Serve, p . 14 (Oct .
2016) (as of Jan . 28, 2022) .
206 Servoss and Finn, Security in American
Schools: Are Schools Safer?
Presentation to Alberti Center
for Bullying Abuse Prevention
Colloquium Series (Nov . 8, 2015) .
207 Office for Civil Rights, 2015-16 Civil
Rights Data Collection: School Climate and
Safety, U .S . Dept . of Ed . (2018) (as of June
22, 2021); Robles-Ramamurthy and
Watson, Examining Racial Disparities in
Juvenile Justice (2019) 47 J . Am . Academy
of Psych . & L . 48 (hereafter Examining
Racial Disparities); U .S . Dept . of Ed ., Civil
Rights Data Collection (for 2017-18 School
Year) (Oct . 14, 2020) (as of July 1, 2021) .
208 Green et al ., ‘ A Battle for the Souls of
Black Girls’, supra .
209 E .g ., Cal . Dept . of Justice, Stockton
Unified School District Enter into
Agreement to Address Discriminatory
Treatment of Minority Students and
Students with Disabilities, Press Release
(Jan . 22, 2019) (as of June 22, 2021) .
210 E .g ., ACLU, The Right to Remain A
Student: How California School Policies
Fail to Protect and Serve, p . 14 (Oct .
2016) (as of Jan . 28, 2022) .
211 See, e .g ., Gilliam et al ., Do Early
Educators’ Implicit Biases Regarding Sex and
Race Relate to Behavior Expectations and
Recommendations of Preschool Expulsions
and Suspensions?, Yale Child Study
Center, p . 14 (Sept . 28, 2016) (as of June
22, 2021); Dee, A Teacher Like Me: Does
Race, Ethnicity, or Gender Matter? (2005)
95 Am . Econ . Rev . 158, 160-163; Banks
et al ., Discrimination and Implicit Bias in
a Racially Unequal Society (2006) 94 Cal .
L .Rev . 1169; Eberthardt et al ., Looking
Deathworthy: Perceived Stereotypicality of
Black Defendants Predicts Capital–Sentencing
Outcomes (2006) 17 Psychological Sci . 383;
Greenwald and Kriegar, Implicit Bias:
Scientific Foundations (2006) 94 Cal . L .Rev .
945; see also Dasgupta, Implicit In Group
Favoritism, Outgroup Favoritism, and Their
Behavioral Manifestations (2004) 17 Soc .
Justice Research 146, 155 (discussing “[a]
lmost a hundred studies” verifying the
existence and importance of implicit
bias in understanding racial stereotyp-
ing that results in different treatment
on the basis of race or other protected
categories); Gordon, Disproportionality
in Student Discipline, supra .
212 Bottiani et al ., A Multilevel Examination
of Racial Disparities in High School
Discipline: Black and White Adolescents’
Perceived Equity, School Belonging, and
Adjustment Problems (2017) 109 J . Ed .
Psych . 532, 532-533; Bottiani et al .,
Inequality in Black and White High School
Students’ Perceptions of School Support:
An Examination of Race in Context (2016)
45 J . Youth Adolescence 1176, 1176-1177;
Perry and Morris, Suspending Progress:
Collateral Consequences of Exclusionary
Punishment in Public Schools (2014) 79
Am . Sociological Rev . 1067 , 1070, 1084 .
213 Gordon, Disproportionality in Student
Discipline, supra: Results From a Randomized
Controlled Effectiveness Trial in Elementary
Schools (2010) 12 J . Positive Behavior
Interventions 133, 133-135; Luiselli et al .,
Longitudinal Evaluation of Behavior Support
Intervention in a Public Middle School (2002)
4 J . Positive Behavior Interventions 184;
OSI Baltimore, Restorative Practices in
Baltimore City Schools: Research Updates
and Implementation Guide (Sept . 2020)
pp . 6-8 (finding that studies are
continuing to confirm that restor-
ative approaches result in positive
outcomes and are associated with
“decreases in harmful exclusion-
ary discipline and improvements in
school climate”) (as of Apr . 29, 2022) .
214 Jackson et al ., Intergenerational Resilience
in Response to the Stress and Trauma of
Enslavement and Chronic Exposure to
Institutionalized Racism (2018) 4 J . of
Clinical Epigenetics 1, 4 .
215 Lu, Michelle Alexander: More Black Men in
Prison Than Were Enslaved in 1850: Clearly,
Colorblindness Hasn’t Gotten Us Very Far,
Colorlines (Mar . 30, 2011) (as of June 22,
2021); Robles-Ramamurthy, Examining
Racial Disparities, supra, see general-
ly Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass
Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
(2010) (hereafter, The New Jim Crow) .
216 The Sentencing Project, Youth Reentry
(June 14, 2012) (as of June 22,
2021); cf . Alexander, The New Jim
Crow, supra, pp . 8, 94-96 .
217 Toldson, Breaking Barriers: Plotting the
Path to Academic Success for School-
Age African American Males,
Congressional Black Caucus
Foundation, Inc . p . 29 (2008) .
218 Ibid .
219 Hudson, West of Jim Crow, supra, at fn .
12, p . 34; An Act to Provide for a
242
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
System of Common Schools, Stats .
1866, ch . 342, §§ 57-58, p . 18 .
220 Hudson, West of Jim Crow, supra, at fn .
12, pp . 34-36 .
221 Ibid .; Wollenberg, All Deliberate Speed,
supra, at fn . 12, pp . 14, 18, 20; see also
Don Wilson Builders v. Superior Court
of Los Angeles County (1963) 220 Cal .
App .2d 77 , 90 (dis . opn . of Fourt, J .)
(describing statutes and regulation
stating that children of African or
Indian descent shall not be admitted
into schools for white children) .
222 Wollenberg, All Deliberate Speed, supra,
at fn . 12, p . 17 .
223 Wollenberg, All Deliberate Speed, supra,
at fn . 12, p . 8 .
224 Ward v. Flood (1874) 48 Cal . 36, 54-57 .
225 Hudson, West of Jim Crow, supra, p . 38;
Wollenberg, All Deliberate Speed,
supra, at fn . 12, pp . 23-24 .
226 Wollenberg, All Deliberate Speed, supra,
at fn . 12, p . 24 .
227 Hudson, West of Jim Crow, supra, p . 34 .
228 Wollenberg, All Deliberate Speed, supra,
at fn . 12, pp . 25-26 .
229 Ibid .
230 Bailey, Hidden History: Edmond
Wysinger, YourCentralValley .com
(Feb . 14, 2017) (as of June 22, 2021) .
231 Wollenberg, All Deliberate Speed, supra,
at fn . 12, p . 25 (citing Wysinger v.
Crookshank (1890) 82 Cal . 588, 592–93) .
232 Id. at p . 26 . The state legislature did so
later in its history to re-create for
separates schools for Asians and
Native Americans; also some legisla-
tors attempted to do so again for Black
children, but the legislation failed . Id.
233 Hudson, West of Jim Crow, supra, p . 61;
see also id. at p . 168 .
234 Rothstein, The Color of Law, supra, pp .
122, 132-137; Orfield and Jarvie,
Black Segregation Matters, su-
pra, at fn . 2, pp . 12-13 .
235 Hudson, West of Jim Crow, supra, at fn .
12, pp . 167 , 199 .
236 Wollenberg, All Deliberate Speed, supra,
at fn . 12, pp . 125-126 .
237 Id. at pp . 129-130; Westminster Sch. Dist.
of Orange County v. Mendez (9th
Cir . 1947) 161 F .2d 774, 777-781 .
238 Wollenberg, All Deliberate Speed, supra,
at fn . 12, pp . 108-109 .
239 Id. at p . 143 .
240 Hudson, West of Jim Crow, supra, at p .
255 (citing Miller, Address to
Western Governors (1964) Civil
Rights and State’s Rights) .
241 Wollenberg, All Deliberate Speed, supra,
at fn . 12, p . 143 .
242 Ibid .
243 E .g ., Crawford v. Bd. of Educ. (1976) 17
Cal .3d 280, 284-285 (Los Angeles);
Jackson v. Pasadena City School Dist. (1963)
59 Cal .2d 876, 881-882 (Pasadena) .
244 See e .g ., Wollenberg, All Deliberate
Speed, supra, at fn . 12, pp . 148-164 .
245 Cal . Const . art . I, § 26
(November 3, 1964) .
246 Reft, How Prop 14 Shaped California’s
Racial Covenants, KCET (as
of June 30, 2021) .
247 See Cal . Const ., art . I, § 7; School
Assignment and Transportation of
Pupils, California Proposition 1 (1979) .
248 Crawford v. Board. of Educ. of City of Los
Angeles (1982) 458 U .S . 527 , 535-536 .
249 Orfield and Ee, Segregating California’s
Future: Inequality and Its Alternative 60
Years after Brown v. Board of Education
(May 14, 2014) The Civil Rights Project,
UCLA p . 3, 12-18 (hereafter Segregating
California’s Future); Butt v. State of California
(1992) 4 Cal . 4th 668, 684-685 .
250 Bowles, Kamala Harris and Classmates
Were Bused Across Berkeley. The Experience
Changed Them, N .Y . Times (June
30, 2019) (as of Apr . 29, 2022) .
251 Ladson-Billings, Achievement Gap to the
Education Debt, supra, at fn . 2, p . 9 .
252 Orfield and Ee, Segregating California’s
Future, supra, pp . 3, 27 .
253 Orfield and Jarvie, Black Segregation
Matters, supra, at fn . 2, pp . 30-
31, Tables 13 and 14 .
254 Id. at p . 31, Table 13 .
255 Cal . Dept . of Justice, Attorney General
Becerra: Sausalito Marin City School
District Agrees to End Segregation in
Its Schools, Press Release (Aug . 9,
2019) (as of June 22, 2021) .
256 Murphy and Paluch, Financing
California’s Public Schools, Public
Policy Institute of California (Nov .
2018) (as of June 18, 2021) .
257 Serrano v. Priest (1971) 5 Cal .3d 584, 589 .
258 Murphy and Paluch, Financing
California’s Public Schools, supra .
259 Rothstein, The Color of Law, supra, at
fn . 13, pp . 6-10 .
260 Butt, supra, 4 Cal .4th 668, 4 Cal .4th
668 (1992) .
261 Sentilles Taught by America: A Story of
Struggle and Hope in Compton
(2005) pp . 72-73 .
262 Cal . Dept . of Ed ., The Williams Case – An
Explanation (as of July 1, 2021) .
263 Ibid .
264 Chung, Williams v. California: Lessons
from Nine Years of Implementation,
ACLU Foundation of Southern
California, p . 11 (2013) .
265 Id. at p . 19 .
266 Id. at pp . 19-20 .
267 See Murphy and Paluch, Financing
California’s Public Schools, supra, p . 3 .
268 California State Auditor, K -12 Local
Control Funding: The State’s Approach
Has Not Ensured that Significant Funding
Is Benefiting Students as Intended to Close
Achievement Gaps (Nov . 2019) p . 15
(finding that the implementation of
the Local Control Funding Formula
“has not yet proven effective at increas-
ing transparency and accountability”
and noting that “state law does not
explicitly require districts to use
unspent supplemental and concen-
tration funds in the following year to
benefit intended student groups”) .
269 Murphy and Paluch, Financing
California’s Public Schools, supra, at fn .
169; Cano, Data Exclusive: With California
School Bonds, the Rich Get Richer and the
Poor, Not So Much, Cal Matters (June
23, 2020) (districts with the highest
243
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
concentrations of wealthier students
average more than twice as many local
bond dollars per student since 1998 as
most impoverished district and can
benefit from as must as $270,000 per
pupil in local bond money over the
last 20 years) (as of Jan . 28, 2022) .
270 California Task Force to Study and
Develop Reparation Proposals
for African Americans (Oct .
12, 2021) Testimony of Kawika
Smith (as of Jan . 28, 2022) .
271 The Education Trust West, Black Minds
Matter: Supporting the Educational
Success of Black Children in California
(Oct . 2015) pp . 14-16 .
272 Powers et al ., Twenty-five Years after
Larry P ., supra, pp . 153-154 .
273 California Task Force to Study and
Develop Reparation Proposals
for African Americans (October
12, 2021) Testimony of Dr. Rucker
Johnson (as of Jan . 28, 2022) .
274 Assem . Com . on Ed ., Analysis of
Assem . Bill 520 (2021-2022 Reg . Sess .)
as amended March 25, 2021, p . 6-7
(research shows that “[t]eachers of color
boost the academic performance of
students of color”); Freedburg, Despite
Progress, California’s Teaching Force Far From
Reflecting Diversity of Students, EdSource .
org (April 25, 2018) (as of Jan . 28, 2022) .
275 Cal . Dept . of Ed ., Fingertip Facts on
Education in California (2019-2020) (as
of Jan . 28, 2022); Assem . Com . on Ed .,
Analysis of Assem . Bill 520 (2021-2022
Reg . Sess .) as amended March 25, 2021,
p . 6; Cal . Dept . of Ed ., State Superintendent
Tony Thurmond, Assemblymember Mike
Gipson, Educators and Scholars Urge
Support for First-of-its-Kind Legislation
to Diversify the Teaching Workforce (Apr .
13, 2021) (as of June 25, 2021);
276 Sentinel News Service, Gipson Bill
Supports Male Educators of Color: AB
520 Diversifies Teaching Workforce,
Los Angeles Sentinel (Apr . 15,
2021) (as of June 22, 2021) .
277 Cal . Dept . of Ed ., State Superintendent
Torlakson Announces 2018 Rates for
High School Graduation, Suspension
and Chronic Absenteeism (Nov . 19,
2018) (as of June 22, 2021) .
278 Davis, “Why Are the Black Kids Being
Suspended?” An Examination of a School
District’s Efforts to Reform a Faulty Suspension
Policy Through Community Conversations
(2017) 27 School Community J . 159, 161 .
279 Losen and Martin, The Unequal Impact
of Suspension on the Opportunity to Learn in
California, The Civil Rights Project (Sept .
18, 2018) p . 5 (as of June 22, 2021); see
also Office for Civil Rights, An Overview
of Exclusionary Discipline Practices in Public
Schools for the 2017-2018 School Year, U .S .
Dept . of Ed . (June 2021) (as of June 24,
2021) (finding that “Black pre-school
students were expelled at rates that were
more than twice their share (38 .2%) of
total pre-school enrollment (18 .2%)”) .
280 Cal . Dept . of Justice, California
Department of Justice, Stockton Unified
School District Enter into Agreement to
Address Discriminatory Treatment of
Minority Students and Students with
Disabilities, Press Release (Jan . 22, 2019)
(as of June 24, 2021); Cal . Dept . of
Justice, Attorney General Becerra Secures
Settlements with Barstow and Oroville
School Districts to Address Discriminatory
Treatment of Students Based on Race and
Disability Status, Press Release (Aug .
25, 2020) (as of June 24, 2021) .
281 People of the State of California v. Barstow
Unified School District, No . 20STCV3228,
Complaint filed Aug . 25, 2020, p . 6-7 .
282 U .S . Commission on Civil Rights,
Beyond Suspension: Examining School
Discipline Policies and Connections to the
School-to-Prison Pipeline for Students
of Color with Disabilities, Briefing Report
(2019) pp . 10‒11, 49, 66; Whitaker, et
al ., Cops and No Counselors, supra, pp .
5, 35 (analyzing 2015-16 academic year
data collected by U .S . Department of
Education and finding that California
had a 44 percent increase in referral
to law enforcement from 2013-14 to
2015-16); Black Organizing Project et
al ., From Report Card to Criminal Record:
The Impact of Policing Oakland Youth (Aug .
2013) p . 17 (“While Blacks make up only
30 .5 percent of the student population,
they make up more than 70 percent of
all Oakland School Police arrests .”) .
283 Cal . Dept . of Justice, California
Department of Justice, Unified School
District Enter into Agreement to Address
Discriminatory Treatment of Minority
Students and Students with Disabilities,
Press Release (Jan . 22, 2019) (as of
June 24, 2021); Males, California
Decision Aims to End Aggressive Policing
in Schools, Yes! Magazine (Feb . 14,
2019) (as of Apr . 29, 2022) .
284 Manoucheri, 5-Year-Old Handcuffed,
Charged With Battery On Officer, KCRA
(Feb . 9, 2012) (as of June 25, 2021);
see Males, California Decision Aims to
End Aggressive Policing in Schools, Yes!
Magazine (Feb . 14, 2019) (as of June
25, 2021); Nelson et al ., The Right to
Remain a Student: How California School
Police Fail to Protect and Serve, ACLU of
California (Oct . 2016) p . 13 (hereaf-
ter The Right To Remain a Student) .
285 Nelson et al ., The Right to Remain a
Student, supra, at fn . 284, p . 15 .
286 Sigma Beta Xi, Inc. v. County of Riverside
(July 1, 2018) Case No . 5:18-
cv-01399, at ¶ 83 .
287 Nelson et al ., The Right to Remain a
Student, supra, at fn . 284, p . 13 .
288 Ibid .
289 California Task Force to Study and
Develop Reparation Proposals
for African Americans (Oct .
12, 2021) Testimony of Jacob
Jackson (as of Jan . 28, 2022) .
290 See, supra, at fn . 196 .
291 See, supra, at fn . 196; Hayes et al .,
California’s Prison Population, Public
Policy Institute of California (July
2019) (as of July 24, 2020) (California
numbers reflecting disproportionate
representation of Black people) .
292 See, supra, at fn . 196; see also Ferriss,
Black Oakland Youth Arrested, but Not
Charged, in Stunning Numbers, Report
Says, The Center for Public Integrity
(Aug . 28, 2013) (reporting that “be-
tween 2008 and 2012, [B]lack children
represented 29 percent of Oakland’s
school-age population but 78 percent
244
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
of the more than 13,680 juveniles
arrested”) (as of June 25, 2021) .
293 Murillo, The Possibility Report, From
Prison to College Degrees in California, p .
4 (Feb . 5, 2021) (as of June 22, 2021) .
294 Allen, et . al, Historically Black Colleges
and Universities: Honoring the Past, Engaging
the Present, Touching the Future (2007) 76
The J . of Negro Education 263, 264 .
295 History .com, G.I. Bill (June 7 , 2019) (as
of Jan . 28, 2022) .
296 JBHE Foundation, How the GI Bill
Widened the Racial Higher Education
Gap (2003) J . Blacks in Higher Ed . 36,
36-37; see also Turner and Bound,
Closing the Gap or Widening the Divide:
The Effects of the GI Bill and World War II
on the Educational Outcomes of African
Americans (2003) 63 J . Econ . History 145 .
297 Gasman, Envisioning Black Colleges: A
History of the United Negro College
Fund (2007) p . 11 (hereafter
Envisioning Black Colleges) .
298 Harper et al ., Access and Equity, supra,
at fn . 46, p . 395; Office for Civil
Rights, HBCUs and Desegregation,
supra, at fn . 44, p . 2; see also Croft,
The U.S. Land-Grant University
System: An Overview, Congressional
Research Services (2019) p . 3 .
299 Gasman, Envisioning Black Colleges,
supra, at fn . 297 , p . 11 .
300 Id. at pp . 11-12 .
301 Id. at p . 11 .
302 Harper et al ., Access and Equity, supra,
at fn . 46, p . 395; Office for Civil
Rights, HBCUs and Desegregation,
supra, at fn . 44, p . 2; see also Croft,
The U.S. Land-Grant University
System: An Overview, Congressional
Research Services (2019) p . 3 .
303 See Synnott, The Half-Opened Door:
Researching Admissions Discrimination at
Harvard, Y ale, and Princeton (1979) 45
The Am . Archivist 175, 187; Horowitz,
Campus life: Undergraduate Cultures
from the End of the Eighteenth Century
to the Present (1987) pp . 8, 145 .
304 Bracey, Significance of HBCUs, supra, p .
673; Harper et al ., Access and Equity, supra,
at fn . 46, p . 395; Gasman, Envisioning
Black Colleges, supra, at fn . 297 , p . 12 .
305 Harper et al ., Access and Equity, supra,
at fn . 46, pp . 395-396; Bracey, Significance
of HBCUs, supra, at fn . 30, p . 674 .
306 Id. at p . 394; Allen and Jewell, A
Backward Glance Forward: Past, Present
and Future Perspectives on Historically Black
Colleges and Universities (2002) 25 Rev .
Higher Ed . 241, 244-245; Anderson,
supra, at p . 122; Gasman, Envisioning
Black Colleges, supra, at fn . 297 , p . 13 .
307 Sipuel v. Board of Regents of University of
Okl. (1948) 332 U .S . 631 (state must
offer schooling for Black students as
soon as it provided it for white stu-
dents); McLaurin v. Oklahoma State
Regents for Higher Ed. (1950) 339 U .S . 637
(black students must receive the same
treatment as white students); Sweatt
v. Painter (1950) 339 U .S . 629 (state
must provide facilities of comparable
quality for black and white students) .
308 Harper et al ., Access and Equity, supra,
at fn . 46, p . 396 .
309 Bracey, Significance of HBCUs, supra, p .
685 (citing Harper et al ., Access and
Equity, supra, at fn . 46, p . 397) .
310 Tierney, The Parameters of Affirmative
Action: Equity and Excellence in the Academy
(1997) 67 Rev . of Ed . Research, 165, 168 .
311 Blackmon, Silent Partner: How the South’s
Fight to Uphold Segregation Was Funded up
North (June 1999) (as of Apr . 29, 2022);
Minchin, Clyde Kennard: A Little-Known
Civil Rights Pioneer, Mississippi History
Now (2010) (as of Apr . 29, 2022) .
312 Tierney, supra, at p . 168 .
313 Mitchell, Story of False Arrest Called Civil
Rights Movement’s Saddest, Clarion
Ledger (Dec . 31, 2005) .
314 Bluhm Legal Clinic: Center on
Wrongful Convictions, Clyde Kennard: The
Clyde Kennard Story (as of Apr . 29, 2022) .
315 See Office for Civil Rights, HBCUs and
Desegregation, supra, at fn . 44; Adams v.
Richardson (D .D .C . 1973) 356 F .Supp . 92,
94, modified (D .C . Cir . 1973) 480 F .2d
1159; Egerton, Adams v. Richardson: Can
Separate Be Equal?, 6 Change, No . 10 29 .
316 Office for Civil Rights, HBCUs and
Desegregation, supra, at fn . 44, p . 3 .
317 Ibid .
318 Ibid .
319 Gasman, Historically Black Colleges and
Universities in a Time of Economic Crisis,
Am . Assn . of University Professors
(as of Apr . 29, 2022) (hereafter
HBCUs in a Time of Economic Crisis) .
320 Johnson et al ., Historically Black Colleges
and Universities (HBCUs) in the Twenty
First Century: An Exploratory Case Study
Analysis of Their Mission (2017) 24
Race, Gender & Class 44, 47-48 .
321 Id. at p . 48 .
322 Ibid .; see also Gasman, HBCUs in a
Time of Economic Crisis, supra, at fn . 319 .
323 Guy-Sheftall and Jackson, Challenges
and Possibilities at HBCUs after the COVID-19
Pandemic, Am . Assn . of University
Professors (as of Apr . 29, 2022) .
324 National Center for Education
Statistics, Historically Black Colleges
and Universities (as of July 2, 2021) .
325 Ibid .
326 Orteg and Swinton, Business Cycles and
HBCU Appropriations (2018) 1 J .
Econ . Race Policy 176, 176–195 .
327 Boland and Gasman, America's Public
HBCUs: A Four State Comparison of
Institutional Capacity and State Funding
Priorities (2014) Penn Center for Minority
Serving Institutions, p . 3 (as of Apr . 29,
2022); Belkin, Maryland to Pay Four Black
Colleges $577 Million, Wall Street Journal
(Mar . 24, 2021) (as of June 22, 2021) .
328 Minor, Contemporary HBCUs:
Considering Institutional Capacity and
State Priorities (2008) Michigan State
University, College of Education, Dept .
of Educational Administration, p . 23 .
329 Ibid .
330 Guy-Sheftall and Jackson, Challenges
and Possibilities at HBCUs after the
COVID-19 Pandemic (2021) Am . Assn .
of University Professors (as of Apr . 29,
2022); Price, 1 in 10 HBCUs were Financially
Fragile Before COVID-19 Endangered
all Colleges and Universities, (2020) .
245
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
331 Allen and Jewell, A Backward Glance
Forward: Past, Present and Future
Perspectives on Historically Black
Colleges and Universities, p . 249 .
332 JBHE Foundation, How the GI Bill
Widened the Racial Higher Education
Gap, supra, at fn . 296, pp . 36-37 .
333 Id. at p . 36 .
334 Ibid .
335 Ibid .
336 Id. at p . 37 .
337 Turner and Bound, Closing the Gap or
Widening the Divide: The Effects of the G.I.
Bill and World War II on the Educational
Outcomes of African Americans (2003)
63 J . of Econ . Hist . 145, 151-154, 172 .
338 Bracey, Significance of HBCUs, supra, pp .
674-675; Herbold, Never a Level Playing
Field: Blacks and the GI Bill (1994) 6 J .
of Blacks in Higher Ed . 104; see also
Blakemore, How the GI Bill’s Promise was
Denied to a Million Black WWII Veterans,
History (Apr . 20, 2021) (as of July 7 ,
2020); Onkst, ‘First a Negro . . . Incidentally
a Veteran’: Black World War Two Veterans
and the G. I. Bill of Rights in the Deep South,
1944–1948 (1998) 31 J . of So . His . 517 ,
519-20, 523-24; Darity Jr . and Mullen,
From Here to Equality, supra, pp . 247-248;
Katznelson, When Affirmative Action was
White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality
in Twentieth-Century America (2005) pp .
130-132; Turner and Bound, Closing the
Gap or Widening the Divide: The Effects of the
G.I. Bill and World War II on the Educational
Outcomes of African Americans (2003) 63 J .
of Econ . Hist . 145, 149 fn . 7 , 151-154, 172 .
339 See Katznelson, supra, at fn . 338, pp .
130-132 .
340 Id. at p . 134; Bracey, Significance of
HBCUs, supra, p . 675 .
341 Ottley, Empty Promise: African American
Veterans and the New GI Bill (2014)
144 New Directors for Adult
& Continuing Ed . 79, 79 .
342 Id. at pp . 79-81 (according to the US
Department of Housing and
Urban Development, “near-
ly 56% of all homeless veterans
are Black or Hispanic males”) .
343 Annenberg Classroom, JFK Calls for
Government ‘ Affirmative Action’,
Executive Order 10925 (as of Jan .
28, 2022); Tierney, supra, at p . 167 .
344 Tierney, supra, at p . 167 .
345 Ibid .
346 Chace, Affirmative Inaction, The
American Scholar (December .
2011(As of March 11, 2022) .
347 Ibid .
348 Ibid .
349 Torres, Affirmative Action in Higher
Education: Relevance for Today’s Racial
Justice Battlegrounds, Am . Bar Association
(2020) (as of Apr . 29, 2022) .
350 Hartocollis, 50 Years of Affirmative
Action: What Went Right, and What
It Got Wrong, N .Y . Times (Mar . 30,
2019) (as of Apr . 29, 2022) .
351 Ibid .
352 Ibid .
353 Regents of University of California v. Bakke
(1978) 438 U .S . 265, 307 .
354 Ibid .
355 E .g ., Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) 539 U .S .
306; Gratz v. Bollinger (2003) 539 U .S . 244 .
356 Regents of University of California, supra,
438 U .S . at p . 307 .
357 Jack, A Separate and Unequal System of
College Admissions, N .Y . Times (Sept .
16, 2020) (legacy students have a 25%
percent higher chance of admis-
sion than nonlegacy with the same
SAT scores) (as of June 22, 2021) .
358 Ibid .
359 Torres, supra .
360 National Center for Education
Statistics, Fast Facts (as of June 18, 2021) .
361 National Center for Education
Statistics, The Condition of
Education 2020, College Enrollment
Rates, p . 1 (as of Apr . 29, 2022) .
362 Nichols, Segregation Forever?: The
Continued Underrepresentation of Black
and Latino Undergraduates at the Nation’s
101 Most Selective Public Colleges and
Universities, The Education Trust (July
21, 2020) p . 3 (as of June 22, 2021)
(hereinafter Segregation Forever?) .
363 Id. at pp . 6-7 .
364 Zahneis, Why Has Black-Student
Enrollment Fall, The Chronicle
of Higher Education (Aug . 18,
2019) (as of June 22, 2021) .
365 Hopwood v. University of Texas (5th Cir .
1996) 78 F .3d 932; Kronley and
Handley, Miles To Go: A Report on
Black Students and Postsecondary
Education in the South, Southern
Education Foundation (1998) p . 14 .
366 Hopwood, supra, 78 F .3d 932; Kronley
and Handley, supra, at pp . 14, 50 .
367 Watanabe, Prop. 209’s Affirmative Action
Ban Drove Down Black and Latino UC
Enrollment and Wages, Study Finds, L .A .
Times (Aug . 22, 2020) (as of June 22,
2021); Bleemer, Affirmative Action,
Mismatch, and Economic Mobility After
California’s Proposition 209, Center
for Studies in Higher Education,
U .C . Berkeley (Aug . 2020) (as of
June 22, 2021); Harper et al ., Access
and Equity, supra, at fn . 46, p . 401 .
368 Korry, Black Student Enrollment at UCLA
Plunges: Fallout from Prop. 209, NPR
(July 24, 2006) (as of June 22, 2021) .
369 Nichols, Segregation Forever?, supra .
370 Ibid .
371 McDonnell Nieto del Rio, University of
California Will No Longer Consider
SAT and ACT Scores, N .Y . Times (May
15, 2021) (as of June 18, 2021) .
372 Ibid .; Watanabe, California Groups
Demand UC Drop the SAT, Alleging
it Illegally Discriminates Against
Disadvantaged Students, L .A . Times
(Oct . 29, 2019) (as of Apr . 29, 2022) .
373 Am . Psychological Assn ., Stereotype
Threat Widens Achievement Gap
(as of Apr . 29, 2022) .
374 California Task Force to Study and
Develop Reparation Proposals
for African Americans (Oct .
12, 2021) Testimony of Kawika
Smith (as of Jan . 28, 2022) .
375 Mcdonnell Nieto del Rio, supra .
246
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
376 Benz, Teaching White Supremacy: How
Textbooks Have Shaped Our Attitudes on
Race, Huffington Post (Nov . 20, 2017)
(as of June 22, 2021); Stewart, ‘We are
Committing Educational Malpractice,’
Why Slavery is Mistaught—And Worse—In
American Schools, N .Y . Times Magazine
(Aug . 19, 2019) (as of June 22, 2021) .
377 Mineo, How Textbooks Taught White
Supremacy, The Harvard Gazette
(Sept . 4, 2020) (as of Nov . 22, 2021) .
378 Shuster, Teaching Hard History: American
Slavery, Southern Poverty Law Center
(2018) pp . 9-10 (as of June 22, 2021)
(hereafter Teaching Hard History) .
379 Id. at pp . 9-10; see also Washington,
Diversity in Schools Must Include Curriculum,
The Century Foundation (“Studies
have shown that most students
lack a basic understanding of such
things as slavery . . . .”) (September
17 , 2018) (as of June 24, 2021) .
380 Mineo, supra .
381 Isensee, Why Calling Slaves ‘Workers’ is
More than an Editing Error, NPR (Oct .
23, 2015) (as of June 22, 2021) .
382 Schwartz, Teachers Push for Books with
More Diversity, Fewer Stereotypes,
Education Week (June 11, 2019) (as
of Apr . 29, 2022); Gewertz, Survey
of Mostly-White Educators, supra .
383 Gewertz, Survey of Mostly-White
Educators, supra .
384 Ibid .
385 Governor Lamont Announces Connecticut
Becomes First State in Nation to Require
High Schools Provide Courses on
Black and Latino Studies, The Office
of Governor Ned Lamont (Dec .
9, 2020) (as of Apr . 27 , 2022) .
386 Kaur, Bills in Several States Would Cut
Funding to Schools that Teach the 1619 Project.
But They Mostly Aren’t Going Anywhere, The
Philadelphia Tribune (Feb . 11, 2021) (as
of June 22, 2021); Bernstein, Republican
Lawmakers Introduce Bill to Defund ‘1619
Project’ Curricula in Schools, Nat . Rev .
(July 14, 2021) (as of Nov . 22, 2021) .
387 Sawchuk, What is Critical Race Theory,
and Why is It Under Attack? (May 18,
2021) EdSource (as of Apr . 29, 2022) .
388 Murakami, Teachers Union Vows to
Defend Critical Race Theory in Classrooms:
‘Truth is Not Radical’, Wash . Times
(July 6, 2021) (January 28, 2022) .
389 Ibid .
390 King, A Reparatory Justice Curriculum for
Human Freedom: Rewriting the Story
of African American Dispossession
and the Debt Owed (2017) 102 J . of
African Am . History 213, 216 .
391 Ibid .
392 Mazama, The Afrocentric Paradigm:
Contours and Definitions (2001) 31 J . of
Black Studies 387 , 387 (citing and dis-
cussing Molefi Asante’s seminal work,
Afrocentricity: The Theory of Social Change) .
393 Id. at pp . 387-388 .
394 The Education Trust – West, Black
Minds Matter: Supporting the
Educational Success of Black Children
in California (Oct . 2015), p . 4 .
395 Verene A . Shepherd, Member of the
UN Committee on the Elimination of
Racial Discrimination (CERD), pre-
sentation to the United Nations, Justice
for People of African Descent through
History Education: Addressing Psychological
Rehabilitation (Mar .31- Apr . 4, 2014) p . 1 .
396 Du Bois, Speech to the Association of
Negro Social Science Teachers (Mar .
31, 1960) (as of Apr . 29, 2022) .
397 Ibid .
398 Colón, Review: Reflections on the History
of Black Studies (2008) 93 The J . of
African Am . History 271, 272 .
399 Rooks, The Beginnings of Black Studies,
The Chronicle of Higher Education
(Feb . 10, 2006) (as of Apr . 29, 2022) .
400 See e .g ., Martinez, Newsom’s Veto of
Ethnic Studies Requirement Stirs Applause,
Disappointment, KCRA (Oct . 1, 2020) (as
of June 22, 2021) (hereafter Newsom’s
Veto of Ethnic Studies Requirement);
Harris, A Roadmap for Reparations in
Education, (Oct . 15, 2022) Ed . Week .
401 Assembly Member Medina, author,
A .B . 1331, Analysis, Assembly
Committee on Education (2019) .
402 Branigin, Calif. High School Sparks
Criticism for Using Slave-Ship Role-Play
to Teach Students History, The Root
(Sept . 18, 2017) (as of June 22, 2021) .
403 Shuster, Teaching Hard History, supra, at
fn . 378, p . 12 .
404 Adam, When Authenticity Goes Missing:
How Monocultural Children’s
Literature is Silencing the Voices
and Contributing to Invisibility of
Children from Minority Backgrounds
(2021) 11 Education Sciences 1 .
405 Richardson, Tomorrow’s Super Teacher
(2021) p . 13 .
406 Id. at p . 14 .
407 Dee, The Causal Effects of Cultural
Relevance: Evidence from an Ethnic
Studies Curriculum, Stanford Center for
Education Policy Analysis, Working
Paper No . 16-01 (Jan . 2016) (assign-
ment to an ethnic studies court in
ninth grade in high school increased
ninth-grade student attendance by
21 percentage points, GPA by 14 grade
points, and credits earned by 23) .
408 Assem . Com . on Ed ., Analysis of
Assem . Bill No . 331 (2019-2020 Reg .
Sess .) p . 4 -5 (hereafter Analysis of AB
331); see also San Francisco Unified
School District, San Francisco Board of
Education Board of Education Approves
K -12 Black Studies Curriculum, Press
Release (Oct . 20, 2020) (discussing
2016 Stanford Graduate School of
Education study demonstrating that
San Francisco’s implementation of
a year-long ethnic studies course
boosted attendance by 21 percentage
points and academic performance by
1 .4 grade points) (as of June 15, 2021) .
409 Analysis of AB 331, su-
pra, at fn . 408, p . 4 .
410 Asmelash, After Years of Debate,
California Finally Adopts Ethnic Studies
Model Curriculum, CNN (Mar . 22,
2021) (as of June 22, 2021) (hereafter
California Finally Adopts Ethnic Studies
Curriculum); see also Cal . Dept . of Ed .,
State Board of Education Approves Historic
Ethnic Studies Guidance for High Schools
(Mar . 18, 2021) (as of June 22, 2021) .
411 Martinez, Newsom’s Veto of Ethnic Studies
Requirement, supra, at fn . 400 .
247
Chapter 6 Separate and Unequal Education
412 Assem . Bill No . 101 (Oct . 8, 2021) .
413 Analysis of AB 331, supra, at fn . 408, 4;
see Smith, Orange County Debates Ethnic
Studies: Vital Learnings or ‘ Anti-White’
Divisiveness?, L .A . Times (Apr . 28, 2021)
(as of June 25, 2021) (while there’s been
oppositions by critics who argue ethnic
studies promotes hate and victimiza-
tion, students have shown support
for an ethnic studies requirement,
with one student sharing that such
courses are “important ‘because it tells
the stories that help us belong’”) .
414 SFUSD, Board of Education Approves K -12
Black Studies Curriculum, Press Release
(Oct . 20, 2020) (as of June 22, 2021);
San Francisco Board of Education, Res .
No . 208-25A2 In Support of Creating
a K -12 Black Studies Curriculum that
Honors Black Lives, Fully Represents
the Contributions of Black People
in Global Society, and Advances the
Ideology of Black Liberation for Black
Scholars in the San Francisco Unified
School District, as adopted Oct . 20,
2020; Asmelash, California Finally Adopts
Ethnic Studies Curriculum, supra, at fn . 410 .
415 San Francisco State University,
College of Ethnic Studies,
History (as of Mar . 10, 2022) .
416 Ibid .
417 Ehsanipour, Ethnic Studies: Born in the
Bay Area from History’s Biggest Student Strike,
KQED (Jul . 30, 2020) (as of July 30, 2022) .
418 Assem . Floor, Analysis on Assem . Bill
No . 1460 (2019-2020 Reg .
Sess .) Feb . 11, 2020, p . 3 .
419 Assem . Bill No . 1460 (2019-2020 Reg .
Sess .); California Requires Ethnic Studies
for University System, KCRA (Aug .
17 , 2020) (as of June 22, 2021) .
420 AB 1460 (Aug . 17 , 2020) .
421 Senator Steven Bradford, Governor
Signs Bill to Require Ethnic Studies
at California State University
(as of June 25, 2021) .
422 Bertocchi and Dimico, Racial Gap in
Education, supra, at fn . 116 (results show
persistent effect that past slavery has
on the level of racial education inequal-
ity for African Americans to 2000s) .
423 Office for Civil Rights, Education in a
Pandemic: The Disparate Impacts of
COVID-19 on America’s Students, U .S .
Dept . of Ed . (2021) pp . 2, 12-17 (find-
ing that “the COVID-19 pandemic has
had a strikingly negative impact on
academic growth for many students
of color, widening the pre-existing
disparities” and that the “gap con-
tinued to widen sharply through
winter 2021 for many Black and Latinx
students .”) p . 15 (as of June 25, 2021) .
424 Jones, New Data Shines Light on Student
Achievement Progress – And Gaps – In
California and US, EdSource (Feb . 8, 2021)
(as of June 22, 2021) (hereafter New Data
Shines Light on Student Achievement) .
425 Ibid .
426 Jones et al ., 50 Years After the Kerner
Commission: African Americans Are Better
Off in Many Ways But Are Still Disadvantaged
By Racial Inequality, Economic Policy
Institute (Feb . 26, 2018) (as of June
22, 2021); Cal . Dept . of Ed ., California
Department of Education Releases 2019-20
High School Graduation and Dropout Rates
(Dec . 11, 2020) (as of June 22, 2021) .
427 Agrawal, Black Students Are Succeeding in
College at Higher Rates, But Far Behind
White Peers, Report Says, L .A . Times
(Feb . 24, 2021) (as of June 22, 2021);
Ladson-Billings, Achievement Gap to
the Education Debt, supra, at fn . 2, p . 4;
Orfield et al ., Losing our Future: How
Minority Youth are Being Left Behind by the
Graduation Rate Crisis, The Civil Rights
Project at Harvard University et al .
(2004) (as of June 22, 2021); Bridgeland
et al ., The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives
of High School Dropouts (2006) p . i .
428 Ladson-Billings, Achievement Gap to the
Education Debt, supra, at fn . 2, p . 5 .
429 Id. at p . 6; Tamborini et al ., Education
and Lifetime Earnings in the United States
(2015) 54 Demography 1383, 1385-1386 .
430 Altonji and Doraszelski, The Role of
Permanent Income and Demographics
in Black/White Differences in Wealth
(2005) 40 J . Human Resources 1, 9 .
431 Broyles, A Conversations About the Racial
Wealth Gap—And How to Address
It, Brookings Institute (June 18,
2019) (as of June 22, 2021) .
432 Hicks et al ., Still Running Up the Down
Escalator: How Narratives Shape our
Understanding of Racial Wealthy Inequality
(2021) Insight Center for Community
Economic Development, Duke
University, p . 13 (as of Jan . 28, 2022) .
433 E .g ., Gould and Cooke, Unemployment
for Young Black Grads is Still Worse Than it
was For Young White Grades in the Aftermath
of the Recession, Econ . Policy Institute
(May 11, 2016) (as of June 22, 2021) .
Racism in Environment and InfrastructureCHAPTER 7
I . Introduction
The legacy of slavery, legal segregation, and government policies known as redlining have created environmental
impacts that have harmed and continue to harm African
Americans . First, government policies forced African
Americans to live in poor-quality housing, exposing
them to disproportionate amounts of lead poisoning 1
and increasing their risks of disease, 2 including COVID- 19 . 3 Outside of their homes, African Americans are also exposed to far more pollutants than white Americans,
partially because redlining explicitly grouped African
Americans and other “inharmonious racial groups” with
polluting sources . 4 Second, government actors devel - oped infrastructure projects, like highways and parks,
in ways that destroyed and segregated Black communi -
ties, and also failed to provide or repair public services like sewage lines and water pipes . 5 Finally, African Americans and their homes are more vulnerable than
white Americans to the dangerous effects of extreme
weather patterns like heat waves, disparities which are made worse by climate change . 6
Section III of this chapter addresses the substandard
housing and overcrowding problems faced by African
Americans throughout American history caused by gov -
ernment practices including redlining . Section IV of this chapter addresses discusses the environmental pollut -
ants to which African Americans are exposed as result of similar and related government practices, which dispro- portionately continues to subject African Americans to
hazardous waste management, oil and gas production,
automobile and diesel fumes . Section V addresses the
discriminatory choices made by government actors in
implementing infrastructure development and related
public services, which consistently have disadvantaged
African Americans . Section VI addresses the discrimina- tory impacts of climate change, which are experienced
disproportionately by African Americans as a result of
government actions and policies that have imposed
those harms on them .
COURTESY OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY ARCHIVE/UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP VIA GETTY IMAGES Housing of Black migrant workers. Florida. (1941)
249
Chapter 7 Racism in Environment and Infrastructure II . Substandard Housing and Overcrowding
Throughout American history and to this day, African
Americans have lived in housing of worse quality than
white Americans, and paid more to live in it . 7
Nationally
Starting in the early 20th century, as African Americans primarily rented housing in urban areas, they were con- sistently charged higher rents than white people . 8 Before the federal Fair Housing Act made housing discrimina -
tion based on race illegal, landlords would freely admit that they needed to charge Black renters higher rent be - cause white renters did not want to share an apartment
building with African Americans . 9 To pay for the high - er rents, Black families often took in lodgers or shared apartments, which created additional overcrowding . 10 As of 2010, about 2 .6 million (7 .5 percent) non-His - panic Black people and 5 .9 million white people (2 .8
percent) live in substandard housing in America, which
is defined largely in relation to the housing’s suscep - tibility to waterborne and airborne communicable
diseases . 11 Black households are almost twice as likely as white households to lack indoor plumbing nation -
wide . 12 Black households are more poorly ventilated
than white households in general, leading to excess
moisture that supports the growth of mold and ver -
min, which can lead to or exacerbate asthma and other
breathing issues . 13
Black families also still experience overcrowded hous - ing—generally defined as either having more than 1 .5
or more than two persons per room living in a house -
hold—at three times the rates of white Americans . 14
Overcrowded housing is linked with physical and
mental health problems, including higher rates of ex -
posure to household lead poisoning . 15 This association may be correlative rather than causative, since over -
crowded housing is more likely to be older housing,
and also more likely to house low-income workers in
heavy industries that may cause them to bring lead
dust and other contaminants into the household . 16
Overcrowding has similarly shown to increase the risk
of spread of infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, diarrhea, and infectious respiratory illnesses . 17 At least one recent study demonstrated that overcrowding and
other poor housing conditions correlated with greater
rates of COVID-19 infections across the country, as well as increased mortality from COVID-19 . 18
Overcrowded housing also is linked with various men -
tal health issues, including psychological distress,
alcohol abuse, depression, and sleep disorders . 19 Living in overcrowded housing is also associated with social
withdrawal and feelings of helplessness, 20 as well as an increase in hostility among household residents due to
the lack of privacy and time to oneself . 21
Overcrowded housing also harms school performance
for children, which has lasting impact on their educa - tional attainment . 22 Living in a house with too many people makes it difficult to find a quiet place to study, 23 and even a quiet place to sleep . 24 Children in crowded houses are more likely to catch infectious diseases from others in their household, making it more likely for the child to stay home from school . 25 Children from over - crowded homes are more likely to be held back a grade, 26 they show reduced math and reading test scores, 27 and they demonstrate higher rates of disruptive behaviors
according to teachers . 28 Moreover, some internation - al research has found that children and adolescents in
overcrowded housing are more likely to engage in vio -
lent behavior in the home, 29 as well as to be victims of sexual abuse . 30
California
California displays the same racial disparities regarding overcrowded housing as the rest of America . The most
recent data provided by the California Department of
Public Health reveals that Black Californians are ap -
proximately 2 .5 times more likely to live in housing
considered “overcrowded,” and 2 .8 times more likely
to live in housing considered “severely overcrowded,”
compared to white Californians . 31
Compared to white households,
Black households are
to lack indoor plumbing 2x
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AMERICANS LIVING IN SUBSTANDARD HOUSING
7 .5% BLACK
WHITE2.8%
250
Chapter 7 Racism in Environment and Infrastructure Black Californians have also been forced to live
in substandard housing, sometimes as a direct result of government action . One historical example is the feder- al government’s building of public housing in Richmond
to accommodate ship workers during World War II,
which was officially and explicitly segregated . 32 As part of those efforts, the federal government put programs
in place that enabled white workers to access perma -
nent, residential housing, but offered Black workers no permanent housing . 33 While some Black workers were
able to find low-quality, long-term housing in areas of the East Bay, others lived in barns, minimal shelter like tents or cardboard shacks, or even without any shelter
in open fields . 34
In California specifically, the problem of overcrowded
housing has been linked to the rapid spread of COVID-19 in neighborhoods with a higher number of Black res -
idents, such as South Los Angeles . 35 Neighborhoods
with overcrowded housing in California had rates of
COVID-19 that were 3 .7 times higher than neighbor -
hoods without overcrowded housing . 36
III . Environmental Pollutants
U .S . government policies, as discussed in Chapter 5,
Housing Segregation, penned African Americans into
poorer neighborhoods with polluting industries, gar -
bage dumps, and other sources of toxic health harms . 37 Local governments zoned Black neighborhoods as in -
dustrial instead of residential specifically to segregate Black residents from white residents . 38 White neigh - borhoods frequently were zoned
by local entities to explicitly ensure
that few industrial or polluting
business could locate within them,
again pushing environmental pol -
lution into Black neighborhoods . 39
Redlined and segregated Black
neighborhoods were cheaper for
polluting industries to build on . 40
This became a downward spiral:
the more garbage dumps and sew -
er treatment plants a neighborhood
had, the cheaper the land was, and the more likely that other polluting industries would move in . 41 Without access to the mortgages and loans available to white
Americans, Black homeowners also had less money to
maintain and improve their homes, which made hous -
ing conditions worse and prevented African Americans
from moving away from polluting sources . 42
Black communities across the country still experience
higher rates of pollution and the negative health out - comes caused by exposure to pollutants . 43
African Americans are exposed to greater pollution
from virtually every polluting source when compared
to white Americans, including hazardous waste, heavy
industry, vehicle traffic, and construction—all of which can be partially attributed to redlining and other
historical discrimination . 44
Hazardous Waste
One source of pollution that has been continuous -
ly prevalent in Black communities is hazardous waste
sites . This pollution has been shown to correlate with increased rates of asthma, cancer, lung disease, and
heart disease . 45 For example, in 2020, the New York Times Magazine profiled the story of Kilynn Johnson, a Black resident of Philadelphia, who developed asthma as a
child and eventually developed gallbladder cancer after growing up in a largely Black neighborhood proximate
to hazardous waste facilities and oil refineries . 46 After recovering from surgery and chemotherapy, Johnson
and a neighbor documented over two dozen close rel -
atives who were diagnosed with some form of cancer,
many rare, and many at unusually young ages . 47
African Americans have long been disproportionate -
ly exposed to these harms . As of 1983, approximately
three out of every four communities in which hazardous
waste landfills were found were predominantly Black . 48 In 1991, the federal Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) acknowledged that a disproportionate number of
toxic waste facilities were found in Black neighborhoods throughout the country . 49 More recently, a study in 2007 analyzed 38 states and found that African Americans
disproportionately live in neighborhoods that host
Redlined and segregated Black neighborhoods were cheaper for polluting industries to build on. This became a downward spiral: the more garbage dumps and sewer treatment plants a neighborhood had, the cheaper the land was, and the more likely that other polluting industries would move in.
251
Chapter 7 Racism in Environment and Infrastructure hazardous waste facilities and are twice as likely to live near a hazardous waste facility . 50 As of 2020, African Americans are still 75 percent more likely to live near facilities that handle hazardous waste . 51
Moreover, studies have shown that that the EPA ’s
handling of toxic waste clean-up sites—i .e ., so-called “Superfund” sites, or former industrial sites polluted
with dangerous levels of hazardous waste—has con -
sistently favored white communities over minority
communities, and an external audit of the handling of
discrimination complaints by the EPA determined that
the agency failed to adequately respond to those com -
plaints . 52 From 1985 to 1991, fines assessed by the EPA against polluters in minority zip codes were approxi -
mately 46 percent lower than in white zip codes . 53 The EPA also took longer to address hazardous sites in mi - nority communities than in white ones, and polluters
were required to undertake more stringent cleanup
measures in white communities . 54
Oil and Gas Pollution
The oil and gas industry, as permitted by governmental
entities, has also imposed disproportionate environmen- tal harms on African Americans . Oil and gas extraction is associated with various carcinogenic pollutants, includ - ing benzene . 55 Studies have shown that living near these sources elevates one’s risk of cancer . 56 Over one million African Americans live within half a mile of oil and gas extraction and refining facilities . 57 African Americans are also more likely to live near fracking facilities, which create similar pollution to more traditional oil and gas facilities . 58 The natural gas produced via fracking con - tains various toxins and carcinogens, including hexane, benzene, and hydrogen sulfide . 59 These dangerous, can- cer-causing chemicals are emitted at the initial facilities that gather natural gas, at points along the systems that move the from those facilities, and at the destination
plants at which they are processed, all of which occur
disproportionately in Black neighborhoods . 60 Moreover, as African Americans have grown increasingly involved
in the fight against oil and gas pollution in their com - munities, fossil fuel companies have pushed back by
arguing that the fight for environmental justice would
particularly harm Black communities by robbing them
of oil and gas-related jobs, including through a false re - port that the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People was opposed to a clean energy plan . 61 Automobile Traffic
Although not specific to one particular industry, African Americans are also subject to disproportionate en -
vironmental harms as a result of automobile traffic .
Some African Americans live in areas with more than
double the traffic density of white neighborhoods, and
experience the highest traffic density of any racial or ethnic group . 62 As a result, many African Americans are exposed to more on-road sources of carcinogenic pol -
lution than other racial or ethnic groups . 63
Auto pollution includes, among other things, expo -
sure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2), which contributes to
asthma and other respiratory ailments . 64 While expo - sure to NO2 is decreasing across all races in the United States, the percentage of increased exposure expe -
rienced by African Americans as compared to white
Americans has changed little . 65 Moreover, among all pollution sources nationwide, African Americans are
more disproportionately exposed to air pollution
attributable to construction than as to any other air
pollution source . 66
Lead Poisoning
Also not specific to any industry, lead pollution is dis - proportionately high in Black communities that were
officially segregated through federal redlining . 67
Although this has been known for decades, commen -
tators have noted that “surprisingly little research” has examined the extent of the problem . 68 This toxic lead exposure comes from myriad sources that are found
in greater amounts in Black neighborhoods, including
toxic industrial sites near to residences . 69 Exposure to lead from outside the home can be through lead water
pipes, gasoline exhaust, and nearby smelting plants . 70 Even though most smelting plants that created lead
pollution have been closed since the 1960s, soil pol -
lution surrounding these facilities remains an active
problem . 71 Nationally, Black children are three times as likely to have elevated blood rates of lead, and these patterns have persisted even as lead exposure rates have decreased for children of other races and ethnicities . 72 These disparities are even more dramatic in some areas
with older housing stock . For example, a 2004 report
found that in Chicago, Black children were five to 12
times more likely to exhibit lead poisoning than white
children . 73 This is partially because Black Chicagoans are disproportionately located in older housing stock with
deteriorating lead-based paint . 74
Compared to other Americans,
African Americans are
to live near hazardous
waste or refining facilities 75%
MORE LIKEL Y
252
Chapter 7 Racism in Environment and Infrastructure All of these forms of environmental pollution have seri - ous health consequences, resulting in chronic illnesses like diabetes, asthma, and heart disease, and affecting maternal health and educational outcomes . 75 African Americans suffer disproportionately from these health
problems . 76 Moreover, these health consequences per - sist long after exposure, with at least one study showing substantial central nervous system deficits 11 years after childhood exposure . 77 For further discussion of dispar - ities in health outcomes not specific to environmental
pollution, see Chapter 12, Mental and Physical Harm
and Neglect .
California
Historically, federal public housing was explicitly creat - ed to segregate Black Californians into areas with greater pollution burdens due to immediately adjacent pollut -
ing sources . For example, when the federal government
built public housing in Richmond to accommodate ship
workers, as discussed above, it placed the temporary
housing for Black workers by the railroad tracks and
shipbuilding areas, subjecting them to particulate mat - ter (e .g ., small cancer-causing particles associated with diesel exhaust) and industrial pollution, but built higher quality housing for white workers further inland . 78
Many areas within California still demonstrate racial
disparities traceable to state and federal government
action . Studies throughout the 1990s have found that
largely Black and Latino people in Los Angeles are the
most heavily impacted by pollution and toxic waste
sites . 79 Neighborhoods that were explicitly redlined by federal agencies in the 1930s—ranging from South
Stockton to West Oakland to Wilmington in Los Angeles—
continue to have some of the highest average pollution
levels in the state . 80
The historically Black area of Bayview-Hunters Point
in San Francisco has a long history of environmental
racism, with Black residents subjected to myriad envi - ronmental harms, including radioactive contamination
from a nearby shipyard, not experienced by whiter,
wealthier areas within San Francisco . 81 Moreover, recent environmental remediation efforts have come hand-
in-hand with a substantial decline in the percentage
of Black residents . 82 Starting in the 20th century, Black residents of the neighborhood were displaced by Latino
and Asian-American residents . 83 Although this has
largely been attributed to the “dot com” boom and ris - ing housing prices across San Francisco, scholars have
offered a variety of discriminatory factors that drove
Black residents out . 84 These include the San Francisco Housing Authority’s demolition of public housing, the
San Francisco Police Department’s enforcement of gang
injunctions, and the issuance of subprime mortgage
loans . 85 As one long-time Black resident described it, the formerly-polluted community in which she had long
lived is now dramatically cleaner, but is no longer meant for “her or for her grandchildren .” 86
Similarly, the divisions between the wealthier, white
“hills” of Oakland, California and the poorer, Black
“flats” that were first established by federal redlin - ing have remained today, with Black residents of the
low-lying areas still subject to far greater environmental pollutants . 87 In Oakland’s earlier days, redlining placed Black Californians in these “flats” adjacent to various heavy industries and manufacturing centers, acknowl -
edging that the housing available was of low quality
and subject to noticeable industrial “odors .” 88 From the 1950s through the 1980s, substantial freeway construc - tion projects placed substantial pollution burdens on
all of the low-lying areas in Oakland, including in the few parks and other green space available to them . 89 Residents of these areas continue to experience quan -
tifiably greater health consequences, such as emergency room visits due to asthma . 90
These patterns exist across California with respect to
facilities that handle hazardous waste . Los Angeles
has 1 .2 million people living near facilities that handle hazardous waste, and 91 percent of them are people of
color . 91 African Americans live near hazardous waste facilities at rates higher than other people of color as a whole . 92 This is true elsewhere in California, leading to increased lifetime cancer risks for Black Californians that correlate with exposure to outdoor air toxins . 93 As is the case nationwide, the oil and gas industry dis - proportionately affects Black Californians . More than
two million Californians live within 2,500 feet of an
unplugged oil or gas well, with greater percentages of
African Americans living near these sources of pollution than the California population as a whole . 94 Aside from the exposure to carcinogenic chemicals involved with oil and gas production, toxic residues brought up by sub -
terranean drilling can contaminate local aquifers that
supply drinking water . 95 In the greater Los Angeles Area, notable oil production exists in Inglewood and Baldwin
Hills areas which have a greater Black population than
Black children are
to have elevated lead
levels in their blood3x
MORE LIKEL Y
253
Chapter 7 Racism in Environment and Infrastructure Los Angeles generally . 96 Similar patterns exist in the San Francisco Bay Area, with major oil production facilities in Richmond and Martinez, areas that are dispropor -
tionately Black when compared to the broader Bay
Area . 97 Moreover, advocates have argued that public of - ficials are more responsive to oil and gas-related health concerns from residents of whiter, wealthier neigh -
borhoods, noting that the methane leak in the wealthy
Porter Ranch neighborhood of Los Angeles elicited a
massive, statewide response while hundreds of signif -
icant health complaints related to the AllenCo drilling site in the largely Black neighborhood Jefferson Park
were ignored for years . 98
Even for industries that do not inherently involve toxic or carcinogenic materials, increased rates of truck traffic and general industrial activity also lead to higher rates of heavy metal contamination of local soils . 99 Those soils are disproportionately found in the backyards, play -
grounds, and urban gardens of Black Californians . 100 This heavy metal contamination poses a wide array of serious health consequences, including increased susceptibili - ty to asthma, inflammation, pregnancy complications,
high blood pressure, osteoporosis, kidney damage,
and even Parkinson’s disease . 101 It also can prevent safe urban gardening in neighborhoods that would desper -
ately benefit from it . 102 On average, Black Californians breathe in about 40 percent more particulate matter
from cars, trucks, and buses than white Californians . 103 Black Californians are exposed to a higher amount of PM 2 .5—fine particles emitted by diesel engines—at a rate of 43 percent higher than white Californians, the highest
rate of any racial or ethnic group . 104 Black Californians also are exposed to disproportionately high levels of air pollution from other infrastructure-related non-mobile
sources, such as shipyards, factories, warehouses, and
aviation . 105 These sources of air pollution are a prima - ry reason that African Americans have the highest rates of asthma among all groups in California, 106 leading to asthma-related deaths at a rate of two to three times
higher than any other racial or ethnic group . 107 Exposure to small particulate matter from cars, trucks, and buses is also tied to increased risk of heart and lung disease . 108 IV . Climate Change
Research on the concrete and worsening effects of
climate change has made clear that harmful health
and environment-related effects of climate change
will be experienced by all Americans . 109 These effects include increased range and incidence of infectious
disease vectors like ticks, mosquitos, and avian-borne
pathogens and decreased food quality and security . 110 Rising sea levels will damage coastal communities and
reduce water quality and availability . 111 Extreme weath - er events, like floods, storms, fires, and extreme heat waves are projected to occur more frequently and more
severely . 112 All Americans will be at risk of these harms, but not all will face that risk equally . Communities
that are already socially and economically struggling,
including the urban poor, communities of color, the
elderly and children, agricultural workers, and rural
communities will shoulder a disproportionate burden
of these hazards . 113
Nationally
Nationally, formerly redlined areas consistently show
hotter temperatures than other areas . 114 Therefore, climate change is certain to exacerbate existing,
historically-codified disparities that track existing hous - ing-related harms experienced by African Americans . 115 In particular, so-called “heat islands,” which will wors - en due to climate change, exist where built-up urban
areas have few trees, vegetation, or parks that serve to dissipate or reflect heat, and instead have pavement and building materials that absorb and retain it . 116 Federal Environmental Protection Agency studies have found
Residents of Los Angeles who live
near a hazardous waste facility are
people of color91%
Compared to white Californians,
Black Californians are exposed to
particulate matter from
cars, trucks and buses 40%
MORE
254
Chapter 7 Racism in Environment and Infrastructure that the heat island effect can cause urban areas to be up to seven degrees hotter than outlying areas during
the day and up to five degrees hotter at night . 117 African Americans disproportionately live in such heat islands, experiencing higher temperatures on extreme heat days
due to a lack of adequate tree cover . 118 In a study of 108 urban areas nationwide, including several in California, the formerly-redlined neighborhoods of nearly every
city studied were hotter than the non-redlined neigh -
borhoods, some by nearly 13 degrees . 119 Aside from tree cover, other features of the urban landscape in Black
neighborhoods—most notably, roadways and large
building complexes—also absorb
and slowly release heat, which also
exacerbate heat islands and their
effects as discussed above . 120
The greater presence of trees in
a community has been shown to
correlate with lower asthma rates,
fewer hospital visits during heat
waves, and improved mental health
for the community’s residents . 121
There are a variety of reasons for this, but the most
significant is the prevalence of shade that trees create, lowering temperatures and providing a less oppressive
environment during particularly hot days . 122 Conversely, the heightened temperatures in “heat islands” has led to higher rates of heat-related adverse pregnancy conse -
quences for Black women, including premature births
and still births . 123 Elected officials have recognized that the issue of shade and heat islands is connected to social justice, with those facing the greatest risk as a result of these disparities often being the most vulnerable mem - bers of a community . 124
The association between parks and green space with
wealthier, whiter neighborhoods is so strong that even
modern efforts to add green space to largely Black
neighborhoods sometimes involve racist narratives,
with local efforts portraying green revitalization plans as benefiting primarily white residents even in Black
neighborhoods . 125 Such revitalization plans can also lead to the backlash and suffering of Black residents
in these gentrifying neighborhoods . For example,
they can be treated as suspicious by local government
and new residents when they take advantage of new -
ly-constructed parks and other green space . 126 Black residents of areas without tree cover have also faced
gentrification and unaffordability as a consequence,
intentional or inadvertent, of local government efforts to add green space . 127
California
Black Californians experience these disproportionate
harms in many ways, many attributable to the deci -
sions of state and local governments . As is the case
nationally, redlining had the effect of clustering Black Californians in urban centers that often constitute heat islands and the worsening heat waves caused by climate
change will impose disproportionate health burdens on
Black Californians . 128 A 2009 report published by the University of Southern California, “The Climate Gap,”
found that Black residents of Los Angeles are already
almost twice as likely to die during a heat wave as other residents because of the “heat islands” attributable to a history of redlining and segregation . 129
According to the California Department of Public
Health, Black Californians are 52 percent more likely
than white Californians to live in areas where more
than half the ground is covered by impervious surfaces
Map of San Diego depicting average temperature rises, tree coverage, percentage of impervious surfaces and percentage of minority population affected through color coded map. (2020) COURTESY OF HOFFMAN, JEREMY S., VIVEK SHANDAS, AND NICHOLAS PENDLETON. 2020. “THE EFFECTS OF HISTORICAL HOUSING POLICIES ON RESIDENT EXPOSURE TO INTRA-URBAN HEAT: A STUDY OF 108 US URBAN AREAS” CLIMATE 8, NO. 1: 12.
In a study of 108 urban areas nationwide, including several in California, the formerly-redlined neighborhoods of nearly every city studied were hotter than the non-redlined neighborhoods, some by nearly 13 degrees.
255
Chapter 7 Racism in Environment and Infrastructure like asphalt and concrete, and where more than half
the population lacks tree canopy—by definition, the
characteristics of a heat island . 130 This disparity is par - ticularly pronounced in the Greater Los Angeles Area,
where wealthier white areas have triple the amount of
tree cover compared to poorer Black neighborhoods . 131 This may be directly attributable to government ac -
tion, since the City of Los Angeles intentionally kept
tree growth to a minimum in Black communities
where police officers expressed a concern—realistic
or not—that trees could serve as places to hide drugs
or weapons . 132
The California Department of Public Health has warned
that, as heat waves begin earlier in the season and last longer, heat-related deaths are growing dispropor -
tionately more common for certain racial or ethnic
groups, particularly Black Californians . 133 Exacerbating these harms, Black Californians are less likely to have air conditioning, a car to access cooler areas, govern - ment-sponsored cooling stations, and are more likely
to have one or more chronic health conditions . 134 For example, in South Los Angeles, a disproportionately
Black neighborhood, nearly three-fifths of households
did not have air conditioning in
2020, a number which has not sub -
stantially changed over the past
decade even as heat waves wors -
ened . 135 These patterns have been
seen across the state during heat
waves, in which Black Californians
consistently experience heightened
rates of emergency medical visits and hospitalizations
compared to white Californians . 136
V . Infrastructure and Public Services
Nationally and within California, African Americans
have suffered disproportionate harms—both environ -
mental and otherwise—as a result of governmental
investment and neglect relating to infrastructure and
public services .
Neglected Water Systems
While Black communities across the U .S . face these in- frastructure disparities daily, the crisis of water quality and lead poisoning in Flint, Michigan, is an example
of governmental neglect that led to the poisoning of a
Black community . 137
Flint, Michigan, in Genesee County, which is now a
majority Black city, was originally populated largely by white workers for the General Motors (GM) corporation,
which recruited workers in the 1920s and 30s through
housing it built itself and then sold subject to restric - tive covenants preventing sale to nonwhite persons . 138 Private discrimination was cemented and continued
through federal redlining in the 1940s, as GM also
discriminated in the jobs it offered to the few Black resi - dents of Flint, who generally worked as janitorial staff . 139 However, starting in the 1960s, as a larger Black popula - tion arrived, pockets of Flint experienced “white flight,” which accelerated dramatically across Flint through the 1970s as the automotive industry suffered . 140
In 2014, the entire city of Flint decided to switch its drinking water source from Detroit’s system to the Flint River to save money . 141 Residents thereafter complained for months that their water both smelled and appeared
worse, but city and state officials continued to main - tain the water was safe for human consumption, even as
they explicitly chose not to test the water’s safety . 142 After Map of Los Angeles depicting average temperature rises, tree coverage, percentage of impervious surfaces and percentage of minority population affected through color coded map. (2020) COURTESY OF HOFFMAN, JEREMY S., VIVEK SHANDAS, AND NICHOLAS PENDLETON. 2020. “THE EFFECTS OF HISTORICAL HOUSING POLICIES ON RESIDENT EXPOSURE TO INTRA-URBAN HEAT: A STUDY OF 108 US URBAN AREAS” CLIMATE 8, NO. 1: 12.
Black residents of Los Angeles were already almost twice as likely to die during a heat wave as other residents because of the “heat islands” attributable to a history of redlining and segregation. 256
Chapter 7 Racism in Environment and Infrastructure a leaked internal memo from the U .S . Environmental
Protection Agency reported high levels of lead due to
the corrosivity of the Flint River water, state officials continued to falsely maintain the levels were safe and
called the federal report an “outlier .” 143 By the time Flint switched back to Detroit’s water system, children were
exposed to massive amounts of lead with potentially ir - reversible health consequences for both young children
and those exposed in utero through their mothers . 144 Those consequences include learning disabilities, intel - lectual disabilities, and behavioral problems . 145 Again, because Flint had become a majority Black city at the
time of the crisis, these impacts were experienced by
Black Michiganders far more so than other groups: even
in 2017 , after years of attention and remediation, Flint’s water still had higher rates of lead than 98 percent of the rest of the state . 146
Studies showed that the amount of
children in Flint with lead pollution
in their blood almost doubled as a
result of the crisis, while both state
officials and Michigan Governor
Rick Snyder continued to down -
play the issue . 147 The Michigan State
Attorney General has attributed re -
sponsibility for the crisis to all levels
of state and local government, filing
criminal charges against various state and local officials including former Governor Snyder . 148 The charges range from perjury, related to actions designed to cover up
malfeasance, to manslaughter . 149
Inadequate Sewage Systems
Historically, African Americans were subjected to envi - ronmental and health consequences as a result of failure to equitably construct sewer and other waste manage -
ment systems . Originally, U .S . cities relied on private waterworks . 150 By the mid-19th century, cities across America began substantial investment in constructing
modern, sanitary sewer and garbage removal systems . 151 However, Black neighborhoods were not provided with
such systems as early—or at all—as compared to white
neighborhoods . 152 In fact, the impetus for provision of such services to Black neighborhoods was sometimes
to prevent diseases that resulted from the lack of such services from crossing from Black neighborhoods into
white ones . 153
Rates of illness and death resulting from poor sewage
disposal dramatically diverged for Black and white
Americans as the latter gained access to effective sew - age systems while the former did not . 154 For example, in early 20th century New York, Black residents were
forced to live in lowland areas near drainage pools for sewage while white residents lived on higher ground
with better drainage . 155 As a result, Black people died from malaria at much higher rates than white people
and experienced higher rates of diseases like dysentery and typhoid . 156 Similar patterns existed across the South as well . 157
Across the nation, as residential segregation increased throughout the 20th century, Black neighborhoods ac -
tually lost access to water and sewer municipal services, since it enabled municipalities to more easily prioritize white over Black neighborhoods for better services . 158 These disparities continue today . As recently as 2019, New York City acknowledged its responsibility for a mas- sive leak caused by a collapsed pipe in a largely Black neighborhood of Queens, which flooded 127 homes with
raw sewage . 159 Many of these houses were destroyed or severely damaged, losses that were not covered by basic homeowners or rental insurance . 160
Energy Burdens
African Americans nationally are subject to dispropor - tionately-higher costs and disproportionately-poorer
service with respect to the electrical grid . Black house - holds in America spend more on residential energy
bills than white households, even when controlling
for income, household size, and other possibly-rele -
vant factors . 161 Across the country, African Americans shoulder energy burdens that are disproportionately
larger than any other racial group, meaning they spend
a larger portion of their income on energy . 162 This is true in major California cities as well, such as Los Angeles and San Francisco . 163 These disproportionate costs are partially attributable to African Americans living in old - er, energy-inefficient homes as a result of the legacy of redlining and other discriminatory housing policies . 164 Low-income African Americans are also twice as likely
to have their utility service shut off as similarly-low-in - come white Americans, 165 which advocates have argued are the result of inflexible shut-off regulations and dis - proportionate energy burdens . 166
In the 19th century, as cities built sewer and garbage systems, they ignored or built them slower for Black neighborhoods. In the 20th century, Black neighborhoods lost access to water and sewage services as cities prioritized white neighborhoods.
257
Chapter 7 Racism in Environment and Infrastructure Because of lower rates of home ownership in the Black
community, African Americans also often cannot take
advantage of programs aimed at lessening energy bur -
dens that require home ownership to utilize, such as
home solar panels 167 or installation of free charging sta - tions for electric vehicles . 168 As discussed in more detail above, African Americans also suffer disproportionate
burdens related to the production of energy, as pow -
er plants—including those fired by coal—continue to be
disproportionately located in their neighborhoods, pro - ducing particulate matter emissions that cause damage
to the heart, lungs, and brain . 169
Racist Transportation Systems
Federal, state, and local governments have consistently failed to offer equitable transit options for Black com - munities throughout American history . The earliest
form of transportation discrimination was the traffick - ing of Black Africans in slave ships, discussed more fully in Chapter 2 Enslavement . The federal government al -
lowed and regulated this form of human trafficking until 1808, when the importation of enslaved people was out - lawed . 170 By the late 1700s, the Underground Railroad, an organized effort of safe houses and activists, helped transport enslaved people to freedom . 171 Between 1810 and 1850, the Underground Railroad freed an estimated
100,000 enslaved persons . 172
Around the same time, both the South and the North
segregated travelers by race . Frederick Douglass “was
often dragged out of [his] seat, beaten, and severely
bruised, by conductors and brakemen” when he re -
fused to ride in the Jim Crow car as he rode trains in
New England . 173 The federal government supported
these segregation efforts, even as some states attempted to desegregate . For example, in 1877 , the U .S . Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana civil rights law requiring the desegregation of transport as unconstitutional . 174 Decuir, a Black woman, bought a first class ticket on
a steamboat, but was sent to the second class cabin
because first class was for whites only . 175 The Court overturned a decision from the Louisiana Supreme
Court to award legal damages to Decuir based on a
state law requiring desegregated transport, holding
that Louisiana had no authority to regulate such trans - port . 176 In 1896, in contrast, the United States Supreme Court explicitly permitted segregation in public transit when it upheld Louisiana’s law requiring transportation segregation . 177 This history of government segregation set the stage for unequal transportation for African
Americans that continues to the present .
At the turn of the century, subsidized by government
funds, private companies constructed mass transit
systems in America’s cities . 178 Until around the 1950s, nearly all transit was built and operated by private com - panies . 179 Many transit companies struggled to remain profitable in the 1920s, especially after the Depression . 180 The widespread adoption of the automobile combined
with white Americans’ move to the suburbs, as described in Chapter 5, Housing Segregation, resulted in the com - panies’ financial failure . 181 Public transit systems cut back services as masses of white riders left the system, and never expanded to the suburbs . 182 As government and private actors erected barriers to prevent African
Americans from moving to the suburbs, poorer Black
workers without cars were left with few public transpor- tation options . 183 When manufacturing and industrial jobs moved from urban centers to suburban or rural
areas, urban Black workers were often unable to follow
due to lack of transportation options . 184
In 1968, Dr . Martin Luther King, Jr ., described how city planning decisions result in transportation systems that failed Black communities: “Urban transit systems in most American cities . . . have become a genuine civil rights is- sue—and a valid one—because the layout of rapid-transit systems determines the accessibility of jobs to the black community . If transportation systems in American cities could be laid out so as to provide an opportunity for poor people to get meaningful employment, then they could
begin to move into the mainstream of American life . ” 185 The federal government has been aware of this failure to support transportation for the Black urban workforce,
but has not provided a remedy . In 1968, the report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders,
also known as the Kerner Commission report, studied
the causes and effects of riots in U .S . cities . 186 In order to enhance employment opportunities for central-city
residents, the report recommended the creation of
improved transportation links between Black urban
neighborhoods and new job locations in the suburbs . 187 In the 1960s and 70s, the federal government began
providing funding for public transit, and many munic -
ipalities took control of transit operations . 188 However, scholars argue that these revitalized agencies built a
segregated system . 189 The municipal transit agencies that were created throughout the 70s and into the 80s
were designed to be responsive to the demands of the
local communities, demands which had often grown
“re-segregationist” as a backlash to the Civil Rights
Movement . 190 This created transit systems that were
258
Chapter 7 Racism in Environment and Infrastructure unequal by design . Municipal agencies did not cater to urban riders who relied exclusively on public transit,
instead channeling greater resources to entice mostly
white suburban commuters who could also choose to
drive . 191 This translated to less comfortable seats, un - shaded waiting areas, and bumpier, more unpleasant
rides for Black users of public transit . 192
This system continues to operate today . African
Americans still rely on public transit to get to work at much higher rates than white workers . Black workers
commute by public transit at nearly four times the rate of white workers . 193 Moreover, Black workers on average experience higher commute times than white workers,
both nationally and in California . 194 Finally, since most fares are usually flat, low income people pay a higher
share of their monthly salary on transit, which is more likely to impact African Americans and other people of
color . 195 Due to these government actions, workers re - lying on public transit, who are more often Black than
white, often pay comparatively more money and com -
mute for a longer amount of time if they are able to use transit to get to jobs at all . 196
In addition to discrimination in the public transit sys - tem, as discussed in Chapter 5, our country’s highway
system destroyed Black neighborhoods and intensified
residential segregation by separating Black neighbor -
hoods from white neighborhoods .
Disparities in Telecom
African Americans also face disproportionate burdens
with respect to the national telecommunications net -
work . From 1960 through 2010, African Americans have
had significantly lower rates of telephone access than
white Americans, though this gap has reduced over
time as telephone use became more ubiquitous . 197
More recently, fewer African Americans have access
to broadband internet access than white Americans .
A 2021 study in Indiana revealed that 56 .2 percent of Black residents lacked reliable access to internet ser - vice and/or a computer, compared to 34 .8 percent of
white residents . 198
This lack of telecommunications impacts economic and
educational opportunities . Black teens are almost twice as likely to report that they cannot complete all their homework due to lack of access to a computer or reliable internet access . 199
In addition to difficulty accessing the internet, African Americans are disadvantaged by racist structures within it . Dr . Yeshimabeit Milner testified before the California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals
for African Americans that search algorithms, machine
learning, automated resource allocation systems, and
even credit reporting agencies are all built by software engineers that are overwhelmingly white . 200 As a result, the implicit biases of these human software engineers
have been built into seemingly neutral algorithms and
artificial intelligence, with discriminatory effects . 201 For example, in 2016, when Amazon Prime same day-de -
livery services were introduced in Atlanta, Georgia,
virtually 100 percent of white residents were given ac - cess to the service but less than half of Black residents did . 202 Similar patterns existed for Black residents of Boston and Chicago . 203
California
California authorized segregated public transportation
at least until 1864 . 204 The governments of California and its municipalities have chosen infrastructure projects
that have harmed Black communities . While California
and federal law require state and municipal agencies
to consider racially disparate impacts of infrastruc -
ture projects today, the historical damage caused by
highways in particular has contributed to higher ex -
posure to air pollution among communities of color as
discussed above .
As with the federal government,
California’s government historical-
ly neglected water infrastructure
as it applied to Black Californians .
One example is California’s treat -
ment of Black families fleeing the
dust bowl . These families left the
prairie states and came to farm -
land across California starting in
the 1930s, experiencing widespread
infrastructure discrimination from state and local gov - ernments . 205 For example, Black Californians in the San Joaquin Valley were excluded from most urban areas
with access to clean water as a result of explicit redlin - ing policies, racially-restrictive housing covenants, and even racially-motivated violence . 206 In Tulare county, the largely Black community of Teviston had no access
to sewer and water infrastructure, while the adjacent
The town of Lanare, founded by Black families fleeing the Dust Bowl, had no running water until the 1970s. After wells were drilled, the water contained dangerous levels of arsenic. The town’s residents had no access to clean drinking water until 2019. 259
Chapter 7 Racism in Environment and Infrastructure white community of Pixley did . 207 Again, this discrimi - nation continued until recently: the town of Lanare, also formed by Black families fleeing the Dust Bowl, had no
running water at all until the 1970s, and was subjected to dangerous levels of arsenic in the water even after wells and pipes were drilled . 208 The town’s residents did not get access to clean drinking until 2019 . 209
At times, government entities were explicit in weap -
onizing infrastructure against Black Californians . For example, in the 1950s, a developer in Milpitas, a town
north of San Jose, sought to build a large housing devel - opment open to both white and Black homebuyers . 210
He managed to overcome several zoning related obsta -
cles only to discover that the Milpitas City Council had increased the sewer connection fee more than tenfold
explicitly to thwart the development . 211
Black neighborhoods in California still suffer extreme - ly high rates of water pollution in the water provided
through government infrastructure . In 2019, the New
York Times reported that as many as 1,000 community
water systems in California may be at high risk of fail - ing to deliver potable water, with a disproportionate
number of these systems located in low-income areas
that tend to be disproportionately Black . 212 California’s Environmental Protection Agency has also acknowledged
that contamination of water sources disproportionately
impacts communities of color . 213
A UCLA report in 2021 identified 29 failing water sys - tems in Los Angeles County, and these systems largely
service communities of color . 214 For example, in 2019, authorities dissolved the Sativa Los Angeles county
Water District for servicing brown water for decades to its customers in Willowbrook and the historically Black neighborhood of Compton . 215 In Oakland, the majority Black McClymonds High School has had a history of se -
rious water contamination issues in recent years, from
lead pollution to dangerously high levels of chemical
solvent groundwater pollution that led to the school’s
temporary closure in 2020 . 216
Transportation discrimination impacts Black
Californians as well . In 1965, the California Governor created the McCone Commission to examine causes of
civil unrest in Los Angeles in 1965, identifying “inade - quate and costly” transportation as contributing to high rates of unemployment among the Black urban popu -
lation . California has not designed its transportation system to address this need, often
favoring rail options catering to sub -
urbs rather than bus lines used by
urban areas with greater Black pop -
ulations . 217 These choices have led to
several high-profile lawsuits, includ -
ing in Los Angeles and San Francisco
in the 1990s and 2000s . 218
Nevertheless, design of public transit
by major municipalities in the state
often catered to the largely white
suburban residents because they
were seen as needing better options
in order to “choose” public transit .
For example, Oakland’s San Antonio
neighborhood, the most racial -
ly diverse in the city and one of the
densest parts of the Bay Area, sees the
Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) train
travel for nearly three miles without
stopping . 219 By contrast, in subur -
ban Walnut Creek and Pleasant Hill,
which are less than half as dense,
BART stations are only 1 ¾ miles
apart . 220 In the late 1960s, BART was
“literally designed” to hurry white
suburban commuters past Black
The image on the left shows a redlining map of Los Angeles, CA made by the Home Owners Loan Corporation during the 1930s. The red portions are non-white neighborhoods deemed by the federal agency to be a credit risk. The map on the right shows the Center for Disease Control’s Social Vulnerability Index scores for census tracts today. The Social Vulnerability Index is widely used to assess a community’s capacity to prepare for, respond to, and recover from human and natural disasters. The red portion indicates the highest level of vulnerability to disasters.
COURTESY OF “NOT EVEN PAST: SOCIAL VULNERABILITY AND THE LEGACY OF REDLINING”/ HTTPS://DSL.RICHMOND.EDU/SOCIAL VULNERABILITY 260
Chapter 7 Racism in Environment and Infrastructure inner-city neighborhoods and residents . ” 221 This pur - poseful decision by the government left Black residents without the same transit options to reach jobs, and lim - ited economic mobility and opportunity . 222
In Oakland, a $484 million elevated “people mov -
er,” which connects BART to the airport, lost federal
funding because it was found to have a discriminatory
impact; its construction led to the elimination of a bus route in the minority neighborhoods it bypasses . 223
But, though the project lost federal funding, it still
went ahead, and the Oakland neighborhood still lost
its bus line . 224
Finally, although the disparities between Black and white residents in terms of raw internet access in California is much smaller than nationally, 225 research has shown that Black neighborhoods in both Los Angeles and
Oakland had the least investment in broadband inter -
net in those cities . 226
VI . Conclusion
The various forms of environment and infrastruc -
ture-related discrimination suffered by African
Americans in this country are rooted in the badges and
incidents of slavery that have never been eliminated in this country . Black enslaved persons were released from bondage and forced into unhealthy, dangerous, and
overcrowded housing, located in the most toxic areas
in our cities, which also lacked proper water and sew - age services . Residential segregation and government
decisions regarding modern infrastructure develop -
ment reinforced these patterns throughout the 20 th
century . African Americans have been denied equal ac - cess to telecommunication services, and are increasingly subjected to “algorithms” and other forms of comput -
erized decision making with racist underpinnings and
outcomes . These racist systems have harmed and will
continue to harm African Americans .
Afton, NC– Black and white protesters march against a toxic waste dump in Warren County. The site was chosen because most of its residents were Black and poor. (1982)
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262
Chapter 7 Racism in Environment and Infrastructure Endnotes
1 See, e .g ., Lockett, How Lead Poisoning
Disproportionately Affects Black Communities
(Feb . 7 , 2022) Healthline (as of Apr . 7 ,
2022); Haslam, Lead Poisoning (2003) 8
Paediatrics & Child Health 8, pp . 509-10 .
2 Krieger and Higgins, Housing and Health:
Time Again for Public Health Action (2002)
92 Am . J . of Public Health 5, pp . 758-768 .
3Jackie Botts and Bénichou, The
Neighborhoods Where COVID Collides
with Overcrowded Homes (June 12, 2020)
Cal Matters (as of Apr . 7 , 2022) .
4 CalEPA, Pollution and Prejudice: Redlining
and Environmental Injustice in California
(Aug . 16, 2021) CalEPA (as of Apr . 7 , 2022) .
5 Hoffman et al, The Effects of Historical
Housing Policies on Resident Exposure
to Intra-Urban Heat: A Study of 108 US
Urban Areas 8 Climate 2020 1, pp . 1-3 .
6 Id . at p . 11 .
7 Rothstein, The Color of Law (2017) pp .
vii-xvii; Taylor, The Environment
and the People in American Cities,
1600s-1900s (2009) pp . 153, 179-180,
183; see also Carter, From Exclusion to
Destitution: Race, Affordable Housing, and
Homelessness (2011) 13 Cityscape 1, p . 37 .
8 Taylor, The Environment and the People in
American Cities, 1600s-1900s
(2009) pp . 60 . 173, 208 .
9 Id. at pp . 210, 280 .
10 Id . at pp . 173, 210, 280 .
11 Jacobs, Environmental Health Disparities in
Housing (2011) 101 Am . J . of
Public Health, pp . S115–S12
12 Roller et al ., Closing the Water Access Gap
in the United States (2019) Dig Deep
and U .S . Water Alliance, p . 22 .
13 Jacobs, supra .
14 Office of Policy Development and
Research, Measuring Overcrowding in
Housing (2007) U .S . Dept . of Housing
and Urban Development pp . 4, 18 .
15 Haslam, supra; Tong et al, Environmental
Lead Exposure: A Public Health Problem of
Global Dimensions (2000), 78 Bulletin of
the World Health Organization 9, p . 1071 .
16 Tong, supra at pp . 1068-69 .
17 World Health Organization,
WHO Housing and Health Guidelines (2018)
pp . 25-27 (hereafter WHO Housing
and Health Guidelines) .
18 Ahmad et al ., Association of Poor Housing
Conditions with COVID-19 Incidence
and Mortality Across US Counties
(2020) 15 PLoS ONE 11 .
19 WHO Housing and Health Guidelines,
supra, at pp . 27-29 .
20 W .C . Regoeczi, Crowding in Context: An
Examination of the Differential Responses
of Men and Women to High-Density Living
Environments (2008) 125 J . of Health &
Social Behavior, pp . 254-68; Regoeczi,
When Context Matters: A Multilevel Analysis
of Household and Neighborhood Crowding on
Aggression and Withdrawal (2003) 23 J . of
Environmental Psychology 4, pp . 457-70 .
21 Earle Chambers et al ., The Link between
Housing, Neighborhood, and Mental
Health (Apr . 24, 2014) MacArthur
Foundation (as of Apr . 7 , 2022) .
22 Solari and Mare, Housing Crowding
Effects on Children’s Wellbeing (2012) 41
Social Science Research 2, pp . 464–476 .
23 Ibid .
24 Ibid .
25 Ibid .; see also Cimini and Botts, Close
Quarters: California’s Overcrowded
Homes Fuel Spread of Coronavirus
Among Workers (June 12, 2020) Cal
Matters (as of Apr . 7 , 2022) .
26 Goux and Maurin, The Effect of
Overcrowded Housing on Children’s
Performance at School (2005) 89 Journal
of Public Economics, p . 809 .
27 Solari and Mare, supra .
28 Evans et al ., Residential Density and
Psychological Health among Children
in Low-Income Families (2001) 33
Environment and Behavior 2, p . 174 .
29 Makinde et al ., Overcrowding as a Risk
Factor for Domestic Violence and
Antisocial Behaviour among Adolescents
in Ejigbo, Lagos, Nigeria (2016) 3
Global Mental Health 16 .
30 Cant et al ., Overcrowded Housing: One of
a Constellation of Vulnerabilities for
Child Sexual Abuse (2019) 93 Child
Abuse Neglect, pp . 239-248 .
31 Office of Health Equity, Housing
Overcrowding (Dec . 2018) Cal . Dept .
of Public Health (as of Apr . 7 , 2022) .
32 Rothstein, The Color of
Law (2017) pp . 5-6 .
33 Ibid .
34 Ibid .
35 Kate Cimini and Botts, supra (noting
that West Adams, a mostly Black and
Latino neighborhood of Los Angeles,
has much higher rates of over-
crowding and of COVID-19 cases) .
36 Jackie Botts and Bénichou, supra .
37 Taylor, supra at p . 503 .
38 CalEPA, supra .
39 Ibid .
40 Ibid .
41 Ibid .
42 Ibid .
43 See, e .g ., Munguia, Environmental
Racism: Why Long Beach Residents of Color
Have Worse Health Outcomes (Mar . 8, 2021)
Press Telegram (as of Apr . 7 , 2022) .
44 Tabuchi and Popovich, People of Color
Breathe More Hazardous Air. The
Sources Are Everywhere (Apr . 28, 2021)
N .Y . Times (as of Apr . 7 , 2022) .
45 Linda Villarosa, Pollution is Killing
African Americans. This Community
Fought Back. (July 28, 2020) New York
Times Magazine (as of Apr . 7 , 2022) .
46 Ibid .
47 Ibid .
48 Rothstein, supra at p . 56 .
49 Ibid .
50 Bullard et al ., A Current Appraisal of Toxic
Wastes and Race in the United States in
Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty 1987-2007
(2007) United Church of Christ, p . 58 .
263
Chapter 7 Racism in Environment and Infrastructure 51 Villarosa, supra .
52 Taylor, supra at pp . 99-100, 505-06 .
53 Ibid .
54 Ibid .
55 Garcia-Gonzalez et al ., Hazardous Air
Pollutants Associated with Upstream Oil
and Natural Gas Development: A Critical
Synthesis of Current Peer-Reviewed
Literature (2019) 40 Annual Review
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56 Johnston et al ., Impact of Upstream Oil
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57 Fleischman and Franklin, Fumes Across
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58 Klara Zwickl, The Demographics of
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59 Fleischman and Franklin, supra at p . 13 .
60 Id . at pp . 13, 16 .
61 Nikayla Jefferson and Stokes, Our Racist
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62 Pratt et al ., Traffic, Air Pollution, Minority
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