On Thursday, November 13 at 11:00 a.m. ET, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) and the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) will host a forum to examine policies that led to the events in Ferguson. Sherrilyn Ifill, LDF Director-Counsel, and Richard Rothstein, EPI Research Associate, will discuss how a century of purposeful federal, state, and local policy to segregate the St. Louis metropolitan area by race was at the root of the events in Ferguson. They will also detail how these policies were not unique to Ferguson and St. Louis, but national in application. Robert Kuttner, co-founder of The American Prospect, will moderate.

In a recent report,  Rothstein showed that government actions such as racially explicit zoning, public housing segregation, and federal requirements for white-only suburbs systematically segregated African Americans—and set the stage for the protests and racial tension following Michael Brown’s death. During the forum, Ifill and Rothstein will note that truly moving forward as a nation will require addressing the century of public policy that created our segregated metropolises. Remedies for our racial problems will be unlikely unless we understand how our racial landscape was created.

This event is open to the public, but we ask that you RSVP.

1333 H St., NW
Suite 300, East Tower
Washington, DC 20005