ABSTRACT

In Race, Law, and American Society: 1607 to Present Gloria Browne-Marshall traces the history of racial discrimination in American law from colonial times to the present, analyzing the key court cases that established America’s racial system and showing their impact on American society. Throughout, she places advocates for freedom and equality at the center, moving from their struggle for physical freedom in the slavery era to more recent battles for equal rights and economic equality. From the colonial period to the present, this book examines education, property ownership, voting rights, criminal justice, and the military as well as internationalism and civil liberties. Race, Law, and American Society is highly accessible and thorough in its depiction of the role race has played, with the sanction of the U.S. Supreme Court, in shaping virtually every major American social institution.