ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the implications of language experts as witnesses in court cases in which “talkin Black” is a critical element. My work in this area began in 1969 with Maher v. Cockrel, the case in which Black attorney Ken Cockrel, defending a member of the Republic of New Afrika, was cited for contempt and was himself put on trial. Another section of the chapter details other cases, focused on language, including my work as the chief expert witness in the most well-known language court case, King v. Ann Arbor (aka the “Black English Case”), 1979.
