Book Description
Michael J. Klarman, author of From Jim Crow to Civil Rights, which won the prestigious Bancroft Prize in American History, is one of the leading authorities on the history of civil rights law in the United States. In Unfinished Business, he illuminates the course of racial equality in America, revealing that we have made less progress than we like to think. Indeed, African Americans have had to fight for everything they have achieved. Klarman highlights a variety of social and political factors that have influenced the path of racial progress--wars, migrations, urbanization, shifting political coalitions--and he looks in particular at the contributions of law and of court decisions to American equality.The author argues that court decisions tend to reflect the racial mores of the times, which is why the Supreme Court has not been a heroic defender of the rights of racial minorities. And even when the Court has promoted progressive racial change, its decisions have often been unenforced, in part because severely oppressed groups rarely have the resources necessary to force the issue. Klarman also sheds light on the North/South dynamic and how it has influenced racial progress, arguing that as southerners have become more anxious about outside challenges to their system of white supremacy, they have acted in ways that eventually undermined that system.For example, as southern slave owners demanded greater guarantees for slavery from the federal government, they alienated northerners, who came to fear a slave power conspiracy that would interfere with their liberties. The newest volume in Oxford's Inalienable Rights series, Unfinished Business offers an invaluable, succinct account of racial equality and civil rights throughout American history. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Stanford Law Review, published by Stanford Law School on March 1, 2005. The length of the article is 3637 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality.(Book Review)
Author: Clayborne Carson
Publication: Stanford Law Review (Refereed)
Date: March 1, 2005
Publisher: Stanford Law School
Volume: 57Issue: 4Page: 1243(8)

Article Type: Book Review

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This digital document is an article from Constitutional Commentary, published by Constitutional Commentary, Inc. on March 22, 2004. The length of the article is 4949 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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Title: International human rights law perspective on Grutter and Gratz.(From Brown to Bakke to Grutter: Constitutionalizing and Defining Racial Equality)
Author: David Weissbrodt
Publication: Constitutional Commentary (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 2004
Publisher: Constitutional Commentary, Inc.
Volume: 21Issue: 1Page: 275(10)

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This digital document is an article from Constitutional Commentary, published by Constitutional Commentary, Inc. on March 22, 2004. The length of the article is 13109 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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Title: Tacking left: a radical critique of Grutter.(From Brown to Bakke to Grutter: Constitutionalizing and Defining Racial Equality)
Author: Daria Roithmayr
Publication: Constitutional Commentary (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 2004
Publisher: Constitutional Commentary, Inc.
Volume: 21Issue: 1Page: 191(30)

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This digital document is an article from Constitutional Commentary, published by Constitutional Commentary, Inc. on March 22, 2004. The length of the article is 9514 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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Title: The last twenty five years of affirmative action?(From Brown to Bakke to Grutter: Constitutionalizing and Defining Racial Equality)
Author: Kevin R. Johnson
Publication: Constitutional Commentary (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 2004
Publisher: Constitutional Commentary, Inc.
Volume: 21Issue: 1Page: 171(20)

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This digital document is an article from Constitutional Commentary, published by Constitutional Commentary, Inc. on March 22, 2004. The length of the article is 4639 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Grutter or otherwise: racial preferences and higher education.(From Brown to Bakke to Grutter: Constitutionalizing and Defining Racial Equality)
Author: Larry Alexander
Publication: Constitutional Commentary (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 2004
Publisher: Constitutional Commentary, Inc.
Volume: 21Issue: 1Page: 3(12)

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This digital document is an article from Constitutional Commentary, published by Constitutional Commentary, Inc. on March 22, 2004. The length of the article is 11400 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Racial integration as a compelling interest.(From Brown to Bakke to Grutter: Constitutionalizing and Defining Racial Equality)
Author: Elizabeth S. Anderson
Publication: Constitutional Commentary (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 2004
Publisher: Constitutional Commentary, Inc.
Volume: 21Issue: 1Page: 15(26)

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This digital document is an article from Social Justice, published by Crime and Social Justice Associates on September 22, 1995. The length of the article is 8715 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the supplier: Four crises have hindered the resolution of the problem of racial inequality in the US. These are the crisis of denial about racism in the country, the difficulties facing liberalism and the nation-state, the global, racial divide and the identity crisis in the anti-racist movement. An equality movement that does not distinguish among oppressions such as ethnicity, race or gender but which capitalizes on the strengths of a multidimensioal struggle is thus imperative.

Citation Details
Title: No easy road to freedom: remapping the struggle for racial equality.
Author: Anthony M. Platt
Publication: Social Justice (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 1995
Publisher: Crime and Social Justice Associates
Volume: v22Issue: n3Page: p9(19)

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This digital document is an article from New York Times Upfront, published by Scholastic, Inc. on February 21, 2003. The length of the article is 3285 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Race matters: this year, the Supreme Court could dismantle affirmative action. Would it be ending an unfair practice or hurting the cause of racial equality?
Author: Eric Nagourney
Publication: New York Times Upfront (Magazine/Journal)
Date: February 21, 2003
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Volume: 135Issue: 10Page: 8(9)

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Book Description

Integrated in principle, segregated in fact: is this the legacy of fifty years of "progress" in American racial policy? Is there hope for much better? Roy L. Brooks, a distinguished professor of law and a writer on matters of race and civil rights, says with frank clarity what few will admit--integration hasn't worked and possibly never will. Equally, he casts doubt on the solution that many African-Americans and mainstream whites have advocated: total separation of the races. This book presents Brooks's strategy for a middle way between the increasingly unworkable extremes of integration and separation.

Limited separation, the approach Brooks proposes, shifts the focus of civil rights policy from the group to the individual. Defined as cultural and economic integration within African-American society, this policy would promote separate schooling, housing, and business enterprises where needed to bolster the self-sufficiency of the community, without trammeling the racial interests of individuals inside or outside of the group, and without endangering the idea of a shared Americanness. But all the while Brooks envisions African-American public schools, businesses, and communities redesigned to serve the enlightened self-interest of the individual. Unwilling to give up entirely on racial integration, he argues that limited separation may indeed lead to improved race relations and, ultimately, to healthy integration.

This book appears at a crucial time, as Republicans dismantle past civil rights policies and Democrats search for new ones. With its alternative strategy and useful policy ideas for bringing individual African-Americans into mainstream society as first-class citizens, Integration or Separation? should influence debate and policymaking across the spectra of race, class, and political persuasion.

Book Description
An examination of the language of law in the area of political representation, this book considers the development and recognition of group claims brought pursuant to the Voting Rights Act and the Equal Protection Clause in Supreme Court opinions. In his analysis, Burke highlights the different, discursive strategies, broadly identified as liberal and communitarian, used by the Supreme Court to justify the outcomes of various cases, and he argues that no particular strategy of justification is inherently politically conservative or liberal and that no conception of political representation is unassailable. Therefore, it is unlikely that the Supreme Court will articulate a stable measure of fair representation. The Supreme Court offers one more forum in the deliberation over what is fair representation; however, it is not likely to provide minority communities with a legal answer to the problem of political underrepresentation. As such, this book tells the uncertain story of the creation of political fairness by the Supreme Court. The language used to characterize what is fair and representative, and the theoretical designs which the rhetoric reflects, allows us to formulate concepts of fair representation as legal standards evolve. By placing the debate over fair representation in not only political and legal but also philosophical terms, we are better able to understand the inevitable tensions that drive the concept of representation into new, ill-defined, and contentious areas. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Guide to the Philosphical Debate Over Majority Minority Districts
If Barrack Obama is elected President, the whole issue of majority minority districts that this book focuses on may seem to be very quaint, but right now the question of the legal controversies surrounding the creation of majority minority is one of the legal topics legislative redistricters and their lawyers must master. Reading this book is like attending a long seminar at a highly ranked law school on this subject.

The simple fact underlying this book is that in many areas of our country it is very difficult if not impossible for a candidate who is the choice of minority communities--often but not always a minority himself or herself--to get the votes of enough white voters to win an election. The author of this book repeatedly agrees with this truism, but also expresses concerns about the effects of grouping minority voters together to maximize their political clout.

I first read this book in 2001, when I was navigating my way through the political and legal landmines of redistricting state house seats for the majority minority city of Philadelphia.I found author Christopher M. Burke's interweaving of Supreme Court cases, law journal articles, and numerous books to be an extrememly valuable guide to understanding the somewhat conflicting case law, being able to explain it to others, and being able to act both legally and effectively to serve public interests.

Rereading this book recently, I am struck at the depth of the author's research and passsion for this rather obscure subject.This is not the book to read for an in-depth political look at majority minority districts, and it is not the book to read to gain insights into their changing nature, the changing nature of the Black Caucus in the U.S. Congress and other legislative bodies.Nor is it the book to read if one wants to compare the growth of black and Latino representation in Congress--both covered by the Voting Rights Act--with the growth in Congress and other legislative bodies of Asians, Jews, Americans of Italian descent, and women, none of whom are covered by the Voting Rights Act.

What this book does far better than any other that I have come across is to give the reader a well-sourced, well-researched sense of the debate over majority-minority districts.The politics of this issue are confused, because the ideological sympathies of the Democratic Party and the national political interests of the Republican Party on one side are engaged in battle with the ideological sympathies of the Republican Party and the national political interests of the Democratic Party on the other side.

To make sense of this confusion, the author wisely reframes this question as a contest between philosophical liberals--who may be politically liberal or conservative, Democratic or Republican--and philopsophical communitarians, who also may be politically liberal or conservative, Democratic or Republican.Philosophical liberals are those focused on individual rights, while communitarians are those focused on group rights.
Justices and other actors have demonstrated an ability to strike both liberal and communitarian chords, the author makes clear.

The key case in majority minority jurisprudence, the author accurately states, is Shaw vs. Reno, 125 L.Ed 2nd 511,113 S.Ct.2816 (1993)(Shaw I). In this case, Justice O'Connor, writing for a divided Court, declined to ban the creation of majority-minority districts where alternatives existed, but banned redistricters from allowing a concern for the creation of majority minority districts to overshadow all other concerns. Majority minority districts could be created as part of drawing districts for incumbents, or as part of another general approach, but not as a goal in and of itself.

Districting, O'Connor said, "seeks to represent a plurality of values...."
She attacked geographically distant majority minority districts, warning of "an uncomfortable resemblance to political apartheid."

Half of this book focuses on Shaw vs. Reno and the subsequent cases that it controlled.Before reading Shaw vs. Reno and its progeny, it is good to read this book to gain a heightened awareness of the issues at stake.

Although the author has the law professor's habit of continually stating opposition views to whatever case he is discussing, he makes clear his symphathy is with the Shaw Court's views.But those read this book for the purpose of gaining a full understanding of the issues will benefit from his thorough treatment of the case law and the philosophies behind it, even if they disagree with his ultimate conclusions.

It is a short book that could have been shortened even more by more thorough editing.But the repetitions do serve the purpose of drilling in the author's key conclusions.

There are no natural redistricting plans waiting to found, he says. There is no redistricting plan than will be universally seen as fair, with all winners and no losers, he says.

Communities are created by redistricters and not discovered, he says.There are legitimate pros and cons for the creation of more majority districts, and pros and cons for not creating more minority districts, he says.The lawyers on all sides, he warns, are political actors.Those involved in the redistricting process, he says, have no choice but to fully study the issues and make and defend political decisions that are as wise as possible.

Each election, he warns, will bring new facts and new court decisions to the table.The process of creating political districts--majority minority or not--is an inherently temporary one.The issues will with be us for a long time.

One thing he does not consider in this 1999 book is what happens if the political dynamic changes so radically that African-American candidates start repeatedly carrying predominantly or overwhelmingly white districts.
He undoubtedly did not consider that because he did not consider it possible, although he notes that African American incumbents in Georgia, forced by the Supreme Court to run in predominantly white districts, were re-elected.

But he makes clear that the perceived need for majority minority districts is based on the peceived permanency of racially polarized voting patterns.The death of these racially polarized voting patterns--if it occurs under Obama or someone else and subsequent candidates--would obviously throw this whole issue into confusion and marginal significance.

With nearly 50 pages of footnotes, citations of 63 Law Review articles, 96 books, and 72 cases, the author cannot be faulted for laziness. His calls for intelligent and informed political involvement, and thinking through the elements of the issues that have deeply divided both political parties and the and federal courts, are well worth following.

He could have shorter paragraphs, and less philosophical jargon.But he offers a valuable guide to the uncertainties of a contested area of the law, and does it by a thorough study of the the public record and scholarly sources. Those interested in navigating through contradictions, questions, temporary fixes, rhetorical strategies, philosphical debates along with normal case law will find this book to be highly useful and informative. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Canadian Ethnic Studies Journal, published by Canadian Ethnic Studies Association on June 22, 1998. The length of the article is 966 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Aboriginal and Treaty Rights in Canada: Essays on Law, Equality, and Respect for Difference, Michael Asch, ed. (Book Reviews / Recensions). (book review)
Author: Rene R. Gadacz
Publication: Canadian Ethnic Studies Journal (Refereed)
Date: June 22, 1998
Publisher: Canadian Ethnic Studies Association
Volume: 30Issue: 2Page: 159(3)

Article Type: Book Review

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