SCADshow and A Cappella Books present ACLU President Deborah Archer in conversation with Stacey Abrams - Dividing Lines

Date and Time

• Wednesday, May 14, 2025  7pm - 8pm

Location

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Details

SCADshow and A Cappella Books welcome ACLU President Deborah N. Archer and two-time Georgia Democratic gubernatorial nominee and bestselling author Stacey Abrams for a discussion on Archer’s new book Dividing Lines: How Transportation Infrastructure Reinforces Racial Inequality. Archer’s book is an essential account of how transportation infrastructure — from highways and roads to sidewalks and buses — became a means of protecting segregation and inequality after the fall of Jim Crow in the 1960s.

Archer is president of the ACLU, where she serves as chair of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee, and a tenured professor and associate dean at New York University School of Law as well as the faculty director of the university’s Community Equity Initiative.

Abrams, the first black woman to become the gubernatorial nominee for a major party in U.S. history, previously served as minority leader in the Georgia House of Representatives. Since then, Abrams has launched multiple nonprofit organizations devoted to democracy protection, voting rights, and effective public policy.

Tickets are $35 and include a signed hardcover edition of Dividing Lines. Tickets are nonrefundable; if you cannot attend, your ticket still entitles you to a signed copy of the book. A Cappella Books will hold your book for one month from the event date, and you may pick it up in-store at 208 Haralson Ave. NE or contact SCADshow to request shipping.

A select number of complimentary tickets are also available for SCAD students, faculty, and staff, who should email scadshow@scad.edu to reserve their ticket. Please note that complimentary tickets do not include a pre-signed book.

About the Book

Our nation’s transportation system is crumbling: highways are collapsing, roads are pockmarked, and commuter trains are unreliable. But as acclaimed scholar and ACLU president Deborah Archer warns in “Dividing Lines,” before we can think about rebuilding and repairing, we must consider the role race has played in transportation infrastructure, from the early twentieth century and into the present day.

As Archer demonstrates, the success of the Civil Rights Movement and the fall of Jim Crow in the 1960s did not mark the end of segregation. The status quo would not be so easily dismantled. With state-sanctioned racism no longer legal, officials across the country—not just in the South—turned to transportation infrastructure to maintain racial divides.

A wealthy white neighborhood could no longer be “protected” by racial covenants and segregated shops, but a multilane road with no pedestrian crossings could be built along its border, making it difficult for residents of a lower-income community to visit. Highways could not be routed through Black neighborhoods explicitly based on race, but their lower property values—a legacy of racial exclusion—could be used to justify their destruction. A new suburb could not be designated “whites only,” but planners could refuse to extend sidewalks from Black communities into white ones, ensuring separation by design.

Drawing on a wealth of sources, including interviews with people who now live in the shadow of highways and other major infrastructure projects, Archer presents a sweeping, national account—from Atlanta and Houston to Indianapolis and New York City—of our persistent divisions. With immense authority, she examines the limits of current Civil Rights laws, which can be used against overtly racist officials but are less effective in addressing deeper, more enduring, structural challenges. But Archer remains hopeful, and in the final count describes what a just system would look like and how we can achieve it.

About the Author

Deborah N. Archer is president of the ACLU, where she serves as chair of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee. She is a tenured professor and associate dean at New York University School of Law and the faculty director of the Community Equity Initiative at NYU Law. She lives in New York with her husband and two children.

About the Conversation Partner

Stacey Abrams is a New York Times bestselling author, entrepreneur and political leader. She served as Minority Leader in the Georgia House of Representatives, and she was the first black woman to become the gubernatorial nominee for a major party in United States history. Abrams has launched multiple nonprofit organizations devoted to democracy protection, voting rights, and effective public policy. She has also co-founded successful companies including a financial services firm, an energy and infrastructure consulting firm, and the media company, Sage Works Productions, Inc.