Thanks to WILPF’s Mary Hanson Harrison in Des Moine, Iowa, for sharing this event at the city’s Franklin Jr High School, supported by the Chrysalis Foundation for Women and Girls. Next, do City Hall and CitiBank!
In the "COLOR OF LAW: A Forgotten History of how our government segregated America", Richard Rothstein sends the reader on a BIG city tours of prejudice and disenfranchisement from Boston to San Francisco. In contrast, the Redline tour illustrates the essence of why understanding small town, rural communities needs to be highlighted in any history lesson of discrimination and the ravishing of often-overlooked cities and towns. It's just too easy to look at the BIG cities and not identify with them, but here, we see once thriving black communities torn apart by highways and racial zoning. It's a small story with a powerful exclamation point!
It’s a story recognizable across the country. You’ll see Benton Harbor, Michigan, transformed in Screwnomics. We can also recommend Linda Gartz’s recent book, Redlined: A Memoir of Race, Change, and Fractured Community in 1960s Chicago, for a more personal woman’s point of view on this economic issue so ready for big change.
