The Color of Law A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein (z-lib.org).epub

Neither the costs nor the benefits of desegregation can be apportioned
fairly. African Americans benefiting from an affirmative action boost may
not be those who most need it because of segregation. White students who
are rejected by an elite university due to affirmative action, but who
otherwise would have been admitted, may not be precisely those who owe
their qualifications to the legacy of privilege that segregation bequeathed.
Our legal system expects every compensatory transfer to be precisely
calibrated to the responsibility of the giver and the victimization of the
receiver. De jure segregation is too massive a historical wrong to satisfy this
principle. Remedying de jure segregation will be neither win-win nor neat.
We’ve made a constitutional mess that will not be easily undone. Certainly,
integration will benefit all of us, white and African American. But costs will
also be involved, and we should accept that those costs are part of our
constitutional obligation. Otherwise, integration will be unlikely to succeed.
Why did leaders whom we consider liberal promote segregationist policies?
What was the motivation for administrations from Wilson’s to Franklin
Roosevelt’s to impose segregation? Was it political expediency, or were
they personally bigoted?
It was some of both.
The Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman administrations could not
enact progressive economic programs without the support of southern
Democrats who were committed to white supremacy. President Roosevelt
chose John Nance Garner, a segregationist Texan, as his vice-presidential
running mate for his first two terms. The selection preserved, at least
initially, Democratic unity in support of policies that disproportionately
helped whites.
But there was more to it than expediency. President Roosevelt’s inner
circle included press secretary Steve Early, a committed segregationist who
ensured that no racial liberalism crept into presidential statements. The
South Carolina segregationist Senator James F. Byrnes was one of
Roosevelt’s (and later President Truman’s) closest confidants, and Roosevelt
appointed him to the Supreme Court. After only a year Byrnes resigned to
take other administration positions. Had Byrnes remained on the Court when