The Providence Preservation Society recently released a guide detailing how mid-century Providence’s urban planning and development were heavily influenced by federal and state policies, especially those related to highway construction, funding, and racial segregation. To gain broader insight, PPS interviewed Richard Rothstein, an expert on American segregation. Rothstein’s 2017 book, The Color of Law, argues that racial segregation in the U.S. resulted from deliberate government policies and institutional actions (de jure segregation), not merely from private choices or economic differences (de facto segregation). His 2023 follow-up, Just Action, addresses how to respond to these entrenched inequities. Rothstein’s understanding deepened after reading the 2007 Supreme Court case Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District, which ruled that some school desegregation efforts were unconstitutional because segregation was deemed a product of private actions rather than government mandate. Rothstein challenges this view, emphasizing that government policies historically created segregation and thus bear responsibility for remedying it. His work highlights the need to recognize and address the systemic roots of segregation in housing and education.