Black Resistance/White Law

Unavailable for a decade, now completely updated to the 1990s, this landmark book is a powerful indictment of federal use of the Constitution to maintain a racist status quo. Constitutional scholar Mary Frances Berry analyzes the reasons why millions of African Americans whose lives have improved enormously, both socially and economically, are still at risk of police abuse and largely unprotected from bias crimes. From the arrival of the first twenty slaves in Jamestown in 1619 through the founding of the nation, from the Civil War and Reconstruction to the Reagan-Bush years and the Howard Beach, Yusef Hawkins, and Rodney King incidents, federal law enforcement has pleaded lack of authority against white violence while endorsing surveillance of black rebels and using "constitutional" military force against them. Whether by action or inaction, the national government has used the Constitution to deny blacks their effective legal rights. The recent upsurge in racial intimidation and violence makes this completely revised and expanded edition of Black Resistance/White Law essential reading

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.