< A 'Forgotten History' Of How The U.S. Government Segregated America May 3, 2017 - 12:47 PM ET 35-Minute Listen + PLAYLIST = Transcript TERRY GROSS, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. We're going to talk about how continuing racial inequality in America is in part a result of 20th-century policies that mandated housing segregation, including in the North. My guest Richard Rothstein is the author of the new book "The Color Of Law: A Forgotten History Of How Our Government Segregated America." He writes about federal, state and local policies that help explain why new suburbs were predominantly white while housing projects became predominantly black and so many neighborhoods became - and remain - segregated. He also writes about how this mandated segregation has contributed to inequality in education, employment and income. Rothstein is a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute and a fellow at the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Richard Rothstein, welcome back to FRESH AIR. So... RICHARD ROTHSTEIN: Thank you very much. GROSS: ... Your work is really about how housing segregation isn't something that accidentally happened. It was policy, even in the North. I think, as you point out in your book, Americans assume that segregation is a result of prejudice and white flight, bank redlining, income difference, self-segregation. How far do government policies in the North date back separating white and black neighborhoods?