From Jim Crow to Civil Rights

A monumental investigation of the Supreme Court's rulings on race, From Jim Crow To Civil Rights spells out in compelling detail the political and social context within which the Supreme Court Justices operate and the consequences of their decisions for American race relations. In a highly provocative interpretation of the decision's connection to the civil rights movement, Klarman argues that Brown was more important for mobilizing southern whiteopposition to racial change than for encouraging direct-action protest. Brown unquestioningly had a significant impact--it brought race issues to public attention and it mobilized supporters of the ruling. It also,however, energized the opposition. In this authoritative account of constitutional law concerning race, Michael Klarman details, in the richest and most thorough discussion to date, how and whether Supreme Court decisions do, in fact, matter.

Winner of Winner of the Bancroft Prize for 2005.

“"This luminous study explores the relationship between the Supreme Court and the quest for racial justice.... a sweeping, erudite, and powerfully argued book that, despite its heft, is unfailingly interesting."--Wilson Quarterly”

"Michael J. Klarman's monumental book--undertaking a sweeping exploration of the causes and consequences of all of the Supreme Court's race decisions from Plessy v. Ferguson to Brown vs. Board of Education--is likely to become the definitive study of the Supreme Court and race in the first half of the twentieth century. As a narrative history of the Court's actions on the broad array of constitutional issues relevant to racial equality--fromcriminal procedure to voting rights to desegregation--the book is an invaluable resource."--Reviews in American History"Klarman's scholarly text is unique in that it encompasses not only the decision itself, but also the events before and after."--Elaine Cassel, author of The War on Civil Liberties"Michael Klarman's authoritative account of constitutional law concerning race--from the late 19th century through the 1960s--is brilliant, both as legal interpretation and as social and political history. While the book deals with a wide range of racially charged issues--criminal procedure, peonage, transportation, residential segregation, and voting rights--it focuses with especially keen insights on the Brown v. Board of Education case of 1954.From Jim Crow to Civil Rights is a magisterial accomplishment." --James T. Patterson, Bancroft Prize-winning author of Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945-1974 (Oxford, 1996)"Michael Klarman's exhaustively researched study is essential reading for anyone interested in civil rights, the Supreme Court, and constitutional law. Accessible to ordinary readers, students, and scholars, Klarman's book presents a challenging argument that places the Supreme Court's civil rights decisions in their social and political context, and deflates overstated claims for the importance of the Supreme Court's work while identifying carefully theprecise contributions the Court made to race relations policy from 1896 through the 1960s."--Mark Tushnet, author of Taking the Constitution Away from the Courts"Pulling together a decade of truly magnificent scholarship, this extraordinary book bids fair to be the definitive legal history of perhaps the most important legal issue of the twentieth century. There is no one from whom I have learned more--and whom I enjoy reading more--than Michael Klarman. This is legal history at its best, and on a panoramic canvas."--Akhil Reed Amar, author of The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction"From Jim Crow to Civil Rights is a bold, carefully crafted, deeply researched, forcefully argued, lucidly written history of law and legal-change strategies in the civil rights movement from the 1880s to the 1960s, and a brilliant case study in the power and limits of law as a motor of social change. Among the hundreds of recent books on the history of civil rights and race relations, Klarman's is one of the most original, provocative, andilluminating, with fresh evidence and fresh insights on practically every page."--Robert W. Gordon, Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and Legal History, Yale University"Michael J. Klarman has written an exhaustive--and according to many reviewers a definitive--account of the United States Supreme Court's twentieth-century jurisprudence of race."--Law and History Review"Michael J. Klarman's monumental book--undertaking a sweeping exploration of the causes and consequences of all of the Supreme Court's race decisions from Plessy v. Ferguson to Brown vs. Board of Education--is likely to become the definitive study of the Supreme Court and race in the first half of the twentieth century. As a narrative history of the Court's actions on the broad array of constitutional issues relevant to racial equality--fromcriminal procedure to voting rights to desegregation--the book is an invaluable resource."--Reviews in American History"Klarman's scholarly text is unique in that it encompasses not only the decision itself, but also the events before and after."--Elaine Cassel, author of The War on Civil Liberties"Of all of the many books published recently on the occasion of Brown's fiftieth anniversary, the most ambitious is Michael J. Klarman's comprehensive history of federal race-relations law from the late nineteenth century until the early 1960s...Klarman's study is a major achievement. It bestows upon its fortunate readers prodigious research, nuanced judgment, and intellectual independence."--Randall Kennedy, The New Republic"Magisterial..."--The New York Review of Books"A highly accessible analysis of the interplay between the Supreme Court and U.S. race relations."--Booklist"Michael Klarman's authoritative account of constitutional law concerning race--from the late 19th century through the 1960s--is brilliant, both as legal interpretation and as social and political history. While the book deals with a wide range of racially charged issues--criminal procedure, peonage, transportation, residential segregation, and voting rights--it focuses with especially keen insights on the Brown v. Board of Education case of 1954.From Jim Crow to Civil Rights is a magisterial accomplishment." --James T. Patterson, Bancroft Prize-winning author of Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945-1974 (Oxford, 1996)"Michael Klarman's exhaustively researched study is essential reading for anyone interested in civil rights, the Supreme Court, and constitutional law. Accessible to ordinary readers, students, and scholars, Klarman's book presents a challenging argument that places the Supreme Court's civil rights decisions in their social and political context, and deflates overstated claims for the importance of the Supreme Court's work while identifying carefully theprecise contributions the Court made to race relations policy from 1896 through the 1960s."--Mark Tushnet, author of Taking the Constitution Away from the Courts"Pulling together a decade of truly magnificent scholarship, this extraordinary book bids fair to be the definitive legal history of perhaps the most important legal issue of the twentieth century. There is no one from whom I have learned more--and whom I enjoy reading more--than Michael Klarman. This is legal history at its best, and on a panoramic canvas."--Akhil Reed Amar, author of The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction" From Jim Crow to Civil Rights is a bold, carefully crafted, deeply researched, forcefully argued, lucidly written history of law and legal-change strategies in the civil rights movement from the 1880s to the 1960s, and a brilliant case study in the power and limits of law as a motor of social change. Among the hundreds of recent books on the history of civil rights and race relations, Klarman's is one of the most original, provocative, andilluminating, with fresh evidence and fresh insights on practically every page."--Robert W. Gordon, Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and Legal History, Yale University"Michael J. Klarman has written an exhaustive--and according to many reviewers a definitive--account of the United States Supreme Court's twentieth-century jurisprudence of race."--Law and History Review

Michael J. Klarman is the James Monroe Distinguished Professor of Law and Professor of History at the University of Virginia. After graduating from Stanford Law School, Klarman clerked for the Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg and then earned his D. Phil. from Oxford University as a Marshall Scholar. He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia with his spouse, Lisa Landsverk, and their four children.

A monumental investigation of the Supreme Court's rulings on race, From Jim Crow To Civil Rights spells out in compelling detail the political and social context within which the Supreme Court Justices operate and the consequences of their decisions for American race relations. In a highly provocative interpretation of the decision's connection to the civil rights movement, Klarman argues that Brown was more important for mobilizing southern white opposition to racial change than for encouraging direct-action protest. Brown unquestioningly had a significant impact--it brought race issues to public attention and it mobilized supporters of the ruling. It also, however, energized the opposition. In this authoritative account of constitutional law concerning race, Michael Klarman details, in the richest and most thorough discussion to date, how and whether Supreme Court decisions do, in fact, matter.

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