Richard & Leah Rothstein - "Just Action" - Marisa Novara

Richard Rothstein and Leah Rothstein will discuss Just Action: How to Challenge Segregation Enacted Under the Color of Law.  They will be joined in conversation by Marisa Novara.

Presented in partnership with the National Public Housing Museum.

This event will be held in person at the Chicago Cultural Center. 

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About the book: In the six years since its initial publication, The Color of Law, "the most forceful argument ever published on how federal, state, and local governments gave rise to and reinforced neighborhood segregation" (William Julius Wilson), has become a landmark work, which—through its nearly one million copies sold—has helped to define the fractious age in which we live. Aware that twenty-first-century segregation continues to promote entrenched inequality, Richard Rothstein has now teamed with housing policy expert Leah Rothstein to write Just Action, a blueprint for action for concerned citizens and community leaders alike. This book describes dozens of activities that readers and supporters can undertake in their own communities to make their commitment real, producing victories that might finally challenge residential segregation and help remedy America's profoundly unconstitutional past.

About Richard Rothstein: Richard Rothstein is the author of The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America. A Distinguished Fellow of the Economic Policy Institute, the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and of the Haas Institute at the University of California (Berkeley). In addition to his recent book, The Color of Law, he is the author of many other articles and books on race and education. Previous influential books include Class and Schools: Using Social, Economic and Educational Improvement to Close the Black-White Achievement Gap, and Grading Education: Getting Accountability Right.

About Leah Rothstein: Leah Rothstein has worked on public policy and community change, from the grassroots to the halls of government. She led the Alameda County and San Francisco probation departments’ research on reforming community corrections policy and practice to be focused on rehabilitation, not punishment. She has been a consultant to nonprofit housing developers, cities and counties, redevelopment agencies, and private firms on community development and affordable housing policy, practice, and finance. Her policy work is informed by her years as a community organizer with PUEBLO and Californians for Justice, working on housing, public safety, environmental justice, and youth leadership, and as a labor organizer with the Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees (UNITE).

About the interlocutor: Marisa Novara was appointed Commissioner of the Department of Housing (DOH) by Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot in May 2019. Believing that housing is a human right, Commissioner Novara directs the City’s efforts to create equitably distributed affordable housing across Chicago’s 77 community areas through policies, development, and legislation.