Distinguished Fellow of the Economic Policy Institute and a Senior Fellow Emeritus of the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund will speak about his book The Color of Law: The Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America.Racial segregation characterizes every metropolitan area in the U.S. and bears responsibility for our most serious social and economic problems – it corrupts our criminal justice system, exacerbates economic inequality, and produces large academic gaps between white and African American schoolchildren. We’ve taken no serious steps to desegregate neighborhoods, however, because we are hobbled by a national myth that residential segregation is de facto—the result of private discrimination or personal choices that do not violate constitutional rights.The Color of Law demonstrates, however, that residential segregation was created by racially explicit and unconstitutional government policy in the mid-twentieth century that openly subsidized whites-only suburbanization in which African Americans were prohibited from participating. Only after learning the history of this policy can we be prepared to undertake the national conversation necessary to remedy our unconstitutional racial landscape.The Color of Law will be available for purchase and Dr. Rothstein will sign copies after the event.Speakers Who Inspire – Richard RothsteinTuesday, July 24, 2018Mahaffey Theater400 1st St. SESt. Petersburg, FL 33701Networking and lunch, 11:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. (Optional)Lecture and discussion, 12:30 p.m.– 2:30 p.m.Free and open to the public, but registration is required.