A Reading List on Exclusion and Racism in the Legal History in the United States

Desiree Valadares presents a reading list that explores "the law’s historical role in the constitution of space, place, the body, and various other modalities of belonging in the U.S."

"The focus lies primarily on integrating legal history texts into architectural scholarship to examine race (and its intersections) and to trace changing legal notions of property, territory, nationhood, and citizenship," explains Valaderes.

Reading recommendations on two themes, exclusion and segregation, follow.

The first theme, Exclusion, is concerned with the ways in which the Right of First Possession, Trespass Laws, Vagrancy Laws, Nuisance Laws, Zoning and Eviction excludes and “others” undesirable groups.

The second, Segregation, looks at Alien Land Acts, Zoning Laws, Restrictive Covenants, Historic Districting, Redlining, Utility Easements, and Right-of-Way isolates and divides space.