Desmond King is the Andrew Mellon Professor of American Government and Professorial Fellow of Nuffield College at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of the British Academy.

• List of Figures


• List of Abbreviations


• Part I: The Historical Context


• 1: The Politics of Segregation in Post-Reconstruction America


• Part II: Segregation in the US Federal Government


• 2: Joining the Government: Because I Dared to be Black


• 3: Working in a Federal Agency: Social Ostracism and Discrimination


• Part III: The Federal Government and Segregation beyond Washington


• 4: A Great Shadow over our Civil Rights: Fighting for the Government


• 5: Serving Time with the Government: Federal Penitentiaries


• 6: The Federal Government in a Segregated Society: Public Employment Exchanges and Housing Programmes


• Part IV: The Legacies of Segregated Race Relations


• 7: Conclusion


• Postscript: The Segregated State in Americas Racial Orders


• Appendices


• Notes


• Bibliography


• Index

Despite major strides in combating racial segregation and oppression since the Civil Rights movement, racial inequality remains a persistent and vexing problem in America today. At the forefront of recent scholarship highlighting the central influence of the US federal government on race relations well before the 1960s, Separate and Unequal uncovers, through archival research, how the federal government used its power to impose a segregated pattern of race relationsamong its employees and, through its programs, upon the whole of American society. In a new postscript to this revised edition, Desmond King places his original, groundbreaking analysis in the context of recent studies and connects the legacy of exclusionary programs and policies to current racialdisparities in welfare reform, prisons, and education.