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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where does Rothstein say Leroy Mereday was born?

2. How recently has the U.S. Supreme Court said that de facto segregation is beyond its jurisdiction?

3. What effect does Rothstein say the federal government had on segregation in housing?

4. Who does Rothstein say was the only one who had standing to enforce a racially restrictive covenant?

5. How does Rothstein characterize the housing policy as Richmond California built public housing during wartime?

Short Essay Questions

1. What effect did the Communist Revolution in Russia have on American housing policy?

2. Why does Rothstein say that Robert Mereday did not even bother filing an application for a mortgage?

3. How does Rothstein say deeds were used as mechanisms of segregation, and how does he say they were backed as de jure segregation?

4. What was the evidence published in Appraisal Journal on the question of whether black families affect housing prices?

5. What was the importance of the Supreme Court’s Buchanan decision in 1917?

6. What backing does Rothstein say the FHA presented to support its claim that African Americans lowered property values?

7. What was the economic argument racist local governments used for restricting black families’ housing options?

8. How did the courts end the use of racially restrictive covenant?

9. What role does Rothstein say the federal government had to play in segregating America’s housing?

10. What strategies would blockbusters use to create panic in white families?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Would you recommend The Color of Law? For what purposes would you recommend The Color of Law, and what kinds of readers would you recommend it for? What other book would you recommend that would cover the same material or tell the same story in a different way?

Essay Topic 2

Who is the audience for The Color of Law? What is the ideal reader for The Color of Law likely to think about the book’s main topics? How does this book try to affect the reader? What is it trying to teach him or her, or get him or her to do?

Essay Topic 3

Evaluate your own reading of The Color of Law—did you resist it, or were you compelled by the story? What does your reading tell you about yourself and your interests? Use specific examples from the book to describe yourself as a reader.

(see the answer keys)

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