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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. When did the massacre take place in Hamburg South Carolina that killed 50 African Americans in advance of elections?

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

3. How does Rothstein characterize the prices African Americans paid for homes bought and flipped by blockbusters?

4. In what year did the U.S. Supreme Court uphold racially restrictive covenants as well as exclusionary zoning ordinances?

5. What does Rothstein say binds Americans to solving the problem of housing segregation?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Rothstein say UCLA students in Westwood, near Los Angeles, got around their neighborhood’s racially restrictive covenants?

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

3. How did towns and developments find ways around the Buchanan decision?

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

5. How did the New Deal affect segregation of housing in the U.S.?

6. What does Rothstein identify as the force that made blockbusting possible?

7. How did many of the African-American men in Rothstein’s study rise to the status where they could afford to buy houses?

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

9. When black families could end up getting mortgages, how does Rothstein say those mortgages affected them?

10. What does Rothstein say the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights concluded about the American government’s role in creating segregation?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does reading The Color of Law change your perspective about America’s history? What was the most important thing you learned from this book? Why do you think this fact or view was not taught elsewhere in your education?

Essay Topic 2

Does Rothstein’s book benefit, or is it diminished, by Rothstein’s calm, academic tone? Would more anger or the presence of other emotions have helped him make his argument? Or would it have hurt the legitimacy of his thesis and evidence? For what audiences would a more emotional narrative be more appropriate?

Essay Topic 3

What do you think it would take, to change the laws on a national level, to remedy the injustice that was perpetrated since reconstruction began in 1877? Could a charismatic leader do it? Would it take a grass-roots movement? Would it take a crisis that would allow hard decisions to be made?

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This section contains 969 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample