Deborah Archer
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deborahnarcher.bsky.social
Deborah Archer
@deborahnarcher.bsky.social
Professor @NYU Law. President @aclu. Social and racial justice advocate. Author, Dividing Lines: How Transportation Infrastructure Reinforces Racial Inequality
Reposted by Deborah Archer
Our government's response to Hurricane Katrina was a failure of civil rights and infrastructure policy as Black communities were left unprotected and forgotten.

As extreme weather events get more common, elected officials must root out the racial justice failures that enabled Katrina’s destruction.
August 29, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Reposted by Deborah Archer
On the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's devastation, ACLU President Deborah Archer argues for Rolling Stone that we must learn the lesson of investing in Black communities before it’s too late.
The Greatest Tragedy of Hurricane Katrina Was Man-Made
Hurricane Katrina reminds us how racial justice and infrastructure are intertwined, ACLU President Deborah N. Archer writes 20 years after the storm.
www.rollingstone.com
August 29, 2025 at 5:00 PM
20 years after Katrina, the message remains clear — infrastructure is a civil right.
Katrina exposed a structural failure: the erosion of infrastructure in Black communities reflected a deeper neglect of Black lives. www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
The Greatest Tragedy of Hurricane Katrina Was Man-Made
Hurricane Katrina reminds us how racial justice and infrastructure are intertwined, ACLU President Deborah N. Archer writes 20 years after the storm.
www.rollingstone.com
August 29, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Is Brooklyn in the house?! I hope so. Join James Forman Jr. and me for a conversation about transportation injustice, systemic racism, and how we can move forward to build back better for everyone. June 9th at 6:30 pm - www.bklynlibrary.org/calendar/cbh...
June 1, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Chicago faces a $770 million transit budget shortfall, threatening severe cuts that would disproportionately impact low-income communities. These cuts could devastate mobility and economic prospects for folks who rely heavily on public transportation.
apnews.com/article/chic...
Chicago risks severe cuts to transit. Its poorest suburbs could be hit even harder
The Chicago area is facing the prospect of bleak service cuts to public transit if Illinois legislators adjourn this weekend without plugging a $770 million hole in the transportation budget.
apnews.com
May 30, 2025 at 1:30 PM
I shared some thoughts with Time magazine on this administration’s threats to transportation justice.

time.com/7287364/trum...
Trump’s Infrastructure Funding Pause Impacts More than Highways
America’s infrastructure is crumbling beneath our feet. We must reorient our thinking, writes Deborah N. Archer.
time.com
May 21, 2025 at 5:43 PM
I’m excited to join the lineup for SXSW London. If you plan to be there, join me to talk about the current challenges to civil rights and civil liberties. @sxsw.com
May 16, 2025 at 3:10 PM
It was such a pleasure to join you!
My latest interview is with @deborahnarcher.bsky.social about my favorite subject and biggest pet peeve: highways! As Professor Archer reminds us, “with transportation infrastructure, history is the present"—and that's not a good thing.

Read/listen below! skippedhistory.substack.com/p/the-racist...
The Racist History Beneath Our Roads
With Professor Deborah N. Archer
skippedhistory.substack.com
April 25, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Incredible victory. Proud of the ACLU folks who fought for this win! @aclu.org

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/24/u...
Judge Limits Trump’s Ability to Withhold School Funds Over D.E.I.
The administration was seeking to cut off money from public schools that allowed certain diversity and equity programs.
www.nytimes.com
April 24, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Reposted by Deborah Archer
Me & my @nyulaw.bsky.social colleague & work wife, @deborahnarcher.bsky.social, preparing to discuss her amazing book, Dividing Lines, @ the NY Historical Society. Predictably, Deborah, like her book, was absolutely fabulous!

Also, check out the @strictscrutiny.bsky.social interview with Deborah!
April 16, 2025 at 2:52 PM
It’s publication day! And I was excited to kick it off with @morningjoe-msnbc.bsky.social ! #DividingLines
April 15, 2025 at 12:44 PM
It was so much fun to join the podcast to chat with the amazing @profmmurray.bsky.social and @leahlitman.bsky.social about my book Dividing Lines!
NEW: We survey the wreckage of SCOTUS’s intervention in the AEA cases, & more legal news

THEN Deborah Archer @deborahnarcher.bsky.social joins to discuss her fantastic new book DIVIDING LINES.

@profmmurray.bsky.social @leahlitman.bsky.social @kateshaw.bsky.social

crooked.com/podcast-seri...
Strict Scrutiny | Crooked Media
crooked.com
April 14, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Reposted by Deborah Archer
For decades, highways and roads have been used to divide communities.

ACLU president @deborahnarcher.bsky.social joins our host W. Kamau Bell on At Liberty to discuss her new book Dividing Lines which focuses on the role infrastructure plays in reinforcing racial inequality.
Know Your Right To Transportation Justice with Deborah Archer and Sister Helen Jones | American Civil Liberties Union
You know that phrase “born on the wrong side of the tracks”? Well, there’s something to it: highways, roads, and sidewalks across America have, for decades, been racial and economic dividers. These th...
https://www.aclu.org/podcast/know-your-right-to-transportation-justice?initms_aff=n[…]n=soc&ms=awr-na-bsky-na-nat-na-racialjustice-podcast-atliberty
April 14, 2025 at 6:53 PM
This book is about more than roads. It’s about the choices we’ve made — and the communities we’ve harmed— in the name of progress. It’s about what happens when infrastructure becomes a tool of oppression. And it’s about what we can do to change it. Tuesday, April 15th.

wwnorton.com/books/978132...
April 13, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Reposted by Deborah Archer
Check out this webinar (April 15) with @deborahnarcher.bsky.social about her forthcoming book DIVIDING LINES (on transportation (in)justice)!

We talk with Deborah about her book on our next episode - you won't want to miss that or this webinar!
April 11, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Reposted by Deborah Archer
It’s book release month!! I’m so excited. Get your copy here: wwnorton.com/books/978132...
April 1, 2025 at 4:27 PM
The administration undid a racial discrimination settlement with a mortgage lender that called a Black neighborhood a jungle. Ushering in the return of redlining.

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/b...
Consumer Bureau Seeks to Undo Settlement and Repay Mortgage Lender
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau wants to return a $105,000 penalty it collected last fall when it resolved a discrimination lawsuit.
www.nytimes.com
March 27, 2025 at 11:49 AM
Reposted by Deborah Archer
In “Infrastructure Equality,” Professor @deborahnarcher.bsky.social and I explore how racial inequality in the U.S. is deeply tied to unequal access to infrastructure—and how the legal system can help address it.

Forthcoming in the Northwestern University Law Review

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
March 4, 2025 at 2:24 PM