Despite the commonly held perception that most northern US citizens embraced racial equality, this book graphically demonstrates the variety of methods - including violence and intimidation, unjust laws, restrictive covenants, discrimination by estate agents and mortgage lenders, and white flight to suburban enclaves - used by whites to thwart the racial integration of their neighbourhoods. This is a national history of American race relations examined through the lens of housing discrimination. The author forces the reader to confront and re-evaluate the deep and enduring division between the races. Although this is a discomforting analysis, which concludes that housing discrimination still exists, the author maintains that it is only a clearer understanding of a shared racial past that will enable Americans to create a successful prescription for fighting intolerance.