Séminaire scientifique de l’OSC : Richard T. Ford

Vendredi  17 juin 2011, 10h-12h, salle A. Percheron – 98, rue de l’Université, 75007 Paris

Richard T. FORD, George E. OSBORNE Professor of Law, Stanford Law School

Housing Segregation by Law: distinctive features of American racial inequality

Many commentators compare the isolation of non-whites in the French banlieues to that of American blacks in inner city ghettos. Although there may be some useful comparisons to be made, American racial segregation is more severe than that in France and, unlike that in France, resulted from a series of deliberate racially discriminatory public policies. Until the mid-twentieth century American law enforced the segregation of the races in schools, public places and housing. Racial zoning laws created exclusively white residential neighborhoods in many American cities until these laws were declared unconstitutional in 1917. Legally enforced private racial exclusion continued to create racially segregated neighborhoods until these private arrangements were effectively outlawed in 1948. Until 1950 Federal law reinforced private prejudice by denying federal housing mortgage guarantees to homeowners living in racially integrated neighborhoods. Even after federal law prohibited racial discrimination in housing in 1968, the patterns put in place by these earlier laws ensured that American cities remained segregated. Also, the unique organization of American cities and their control of land use policy inadvertently reinforces racial segregation.
Despite the historic legal decision in Brown v. Board of Education, school segregation remains a serious problem in the United States. In fact, recent developments have reversed many of the improvements achieved during the 1960s and 70s and, most dramatically, in 2006 the American Constitution was interpreted to prohibit direct efforts to achieve racial integration in public schools. Today the isolation of the black poor is arguably even worse than it was during the era of Jim Crow segregation. Segregated neighborhoods produce segregated job markets, schools and social networks, all of which disadvantage the people who are isolated from the mainstream economy and social life.

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