LAW 531LEC - Civil Rights Movement: Life, Liberty, Law

This course examines the history of how African Americans and their allies succeeded in abolishing the legal regime of racial segregation in the United States. While the focus is upon the period from 1954, when Brown v. Board of Education was decided, through passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, related social and legal issues in the contemporary era will also be considered. In addition to statutes and other conventional legal materials, the work of prominent historians will be assigned, principally: Taylor Branch, The King Years: Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement; Richard Rothstein, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America; and Ari Berman, Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America. Written materials will be supplemented by documentary films, which will be used throughout. Seminar credit may be available, please ask the instructor.

Credits: 3