Moving toward Integration

“Moving toward Integration forcefully argues that unraveling residential segregation is the key to reducing racial inequality—and that, contrary to the prevailing pessimism, integration can be achieved. Pairing their deep knowledge of legal history with a new analysis of household-level mobility and residential locations, the authors document the striking achievements of the 1968 Fair Housing Act, countering the narrative that policy support for integration has been toothless or a failure. Going forward, the combination of changing demographics and targeted policy can move us incrementally—but meaningfully—toward integration.”—Leah Boustan, Professor of Economics, Princeton University

“Professors Sander, Kucheva, and Zasloff skillfully analyze the historic data from 1865 to the present day, proving that racial integration has an enormously powerful effect on lifting people out of poverty. They show that today, with very moderate and non-coercive governmental guidance, pockets of high segregation could be broken up, with potentially huge gains in increasing equality of opportunity and poverty reduction. Their analysis provides the foundation for a bipartisan anti-poverty, pro-opportunity agenda that every American, Democrat and Republican, can champion.”—Carla Hills, former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

“Housing segregation of low-income African Americans is the great unfinished business of the civil rights movement, depriving too many of our fellow citizens access to good schools and jobs. Richard Sander, Yana Kucheva, and Jonathan Zasloff provide a brilliant mix of sweeping history, insightful social science, and compelling policy proposals. On a topic that can be deeply discouraging, this splendid book left me genuinely optimistic about a path forward.”—Richard D. Kahlenberg, Senior Fellow, The Century Foundation

“In Moving toward Integration, the Sander team has produced precisely what America desperately needs: a hard-headed analysis, deeply informed by new empirical data and methodologies, that shows how many metro areas and neighborhoods have been reducing racial segregation and lays out a multi-pronged strategy to finish the job. This highly readable book should become the leading account of how to strengthen the fight against housing segregation, perhaps the largest remaining barrier to racial equality.”—Peter H. Schuck, author of One Nation Undecided: Clear Thinking about Five Hard Issues That Divide Us

“By identifying segregation in housing as the central problem holding back the progress of African Americans, the authors diverge from liberal and conservative orthodoxy. This landmark model of scholarship provides powerful lessons for politicians and policy makers who want to create an America that works for everyone.”—Fareed Zakaria