Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights -- Dylan C. Penningroth, Hardcover

The familiar story of civil rights goes something like this: Once, the American legal system was dominated by racist officials who shut Black people out and refused to recognize their basic human dignity. Then, starting in the 1940s, a few brave lawyers ventured south, bent on changing the law--and soon, everyday African Americans joined with them to launch the Civil Rights Movement. In Before the Movement, historian Dylan C. Penningroth overturns this story, demonstrating that Black people had long exercised "the rights of everyday use," and that this lesser-known private-law tradition paved the way for the modern vision of civil rights. Well-versed in the law, Black people had used it to their advantage for nearly a century to shape how they worked, worshiped, learned, and loved. Based on long-forgotten sources found in the basements of county courthouses, Before the Movement recovers a vision of Black life allied with, yet distinct from, "the freedom struggle."

Author: Dylan C. Penningroth
Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation
Published: 09/26/2023
Pages: 496
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.75lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.20w x 1.50d
ISBN: 9781324093107

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 08/01/2023
Publishers Weekly 08/21/2023