The Resource Litigating across the color line : civil cases between black and white southerners from the end of slavery to civil rights, Melissa Milewski
Litigating across the color line : civil cases between black and white southerners from the end of slavery to civil rights, Melissa Milewski
Resource Information
The item Litigating across the color line : civil cases between black and white southerners from the end of slavery to civil rights, Melissa Milewski represents a specific, individual, material embodiment of a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Biddle Law Library - University of Pennsylvania Law School.This item is available to borrow from 1 library branch.
Resource Information
The item Litigating across the color line : civil cases between black and white southerners from the end of slavery to civil rights, Melissa Milewski represents a specific, individual, material embodiment of a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Biddle Law Library - University of Pennsylvania Law School.
This item is available to borrow from 1 library branch.
- Summary
- As a result of the violence, segregation, and disfranchisement that occurred throughout the South in the decades after Reconstruction, it has generally been assumed that African Americans in the post-Reconstruction South litigated few civil cases and faced widespread inequality in the suits they did pursue. In this groundbreaking work, Melissa Milewski shows that black men and women were far more able to negotiate the southern legal system during the era of Jim Crow than previously realized. She explores how, when the financial futures of their families were on the line, black litigants throughout the South took on white southerners in civil suits and, at times, succeeded in finding justice in the Southern courts. Between 1865 and 1950, in almost a thousand civil cases across eight southern states, former slaves took their former masters to court, black sharecroppers litigated disputes against white landowners, and African Americans with little formal education brought disputes against wealthy white members of their communities. As black southerners negotiated a legal system with almost all white gate-keepers, they found that certain kinds of cases were much easier to gain whites' support for than others. But in the suits they were able to litigate, they displayed pragmatism and a savvy understanding of how to get whites on their side. Their negotiation of this system proved surprisingly successful: in the civil cases African Americans litigated in the highest courts of eight states, they won more than half of their suits against whites throughout this period. Litigating Across the Color Line shows that in a tremendously constrained environment where they were often shut out of other government institutions, seen as racially inferior, and often segregated, African Americans found a way to fight for their rights in one of the only ways they could. Through these suits, they adapted and at times made a biased system work for them under enormous constraints. At the same time, Milewski considers the limitations of working within a white-dominated system at a time of great racial discrimination -- and the choices black litigants had to make to get their cases heard. - Publisher
- Language
- eng
- Label
- Litigating across the color line : civil cases between black and white southerners from the end of slavery to civil rights
- Title
- Litigating across the color line
- Title remainder
- civil cases between black and white southerners from the end of slavery to civil rights
- Statement of responsibility
- Melissa Milewski
- Subject
-
- African Americans -- Legal status, laws, etc
- African Americans -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- Southern States -- Cases
- African Americans -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- Southern States -- History
- Courts
- Courts -- Southern States -- History
- History
- African Americans -- Civil rights
- Race discrimination -- Southern States -- History
- Southern States
- Trials, litigation, etc
- Race discrimination
- African Americans -- Civil rights -- Southern States -- History
- Language
- eng
- Summary
- As a result of the violence, segregation, and disfranchisement that occurred throughout the South in the decades after Reconstruction, it has generally been assumed that African Americans in the post-Reconstruction South litigated few civil cases and faced widespread inequality in the suits they did pursue. In this groundbreaking work, Melissa Milewski shows that black men and women were far more able to negotiate the southern legal system during the era of Jim Crow than previously realized. She explores how, when the financial futures of their families were on the line, black litigants throughout the South took on white southerners in civil suits and, at times, succeeded in finding justice in the Southern courts. Between 1865 and 1950, in almost a thousand civil cases across eight southern states, former slaves took their former masters to court, black sharecroppers litigated disputes against white landowners, and African Americans with little formal education brought disputes against wealthy white members of their communities. As black southerners negotiated a legal system with almost all white gate-keepers, they found that certain kinds of cases were much easier to gain whites' support for than others. But in the suits they were able to litigate, they displayed pragmatism and a savvy understanding of how to get whites on their side. Their negotiation of this system proved surprisingly successful: in the civil cases African Americans litigated in the highest courts of eight states, they won more than half of their suits against whites throughout this period. Litigating Across the Color Line shows that in a tremendously constrained environment where they were often shut out of other government institutions, seen as racially inferior, and often segregated, African Americans found a way to fight for their rights in one of the only ways they could. Through these suits, they adapted and at times made a biased system work for them under enormous constraints. At the same time, Milewski considers the limitations of working within a white-dominated system at a time of great racial discrimination -- and the choices black litigants had to make to get their cases heard. - Publisher
- Cataloging source
- NcU/DLC
- http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
- Milewski, Melissa Lambert
- Illustrations
- illustrations
- Index
- index present
- Literary form
- non fiction
- Nature of contents
- bibliography
- http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
-
- African Americans
- African Americans
- African Americans
- Race discrimination
- Courts
- African Americans
- African Americans
- Courts
- Race discrimination
- Southern States
- Label
- Litigating across the color line : civil cases between black and white southerners from the end of slavery to civil rights, Melissa Milewski
- Bibliography note
- Includes bibliographical references and index
- Carrier category
- volume
- Carrier MARC source
- rdacarrier
- Content category
- text
- Content type MARC source
- rdacontent
- Dimensions
- 25 cm
- Extent
- ix, 345 pages
- Isbn
- 9780190249182
- Lccn
- 2017023644
- Media category
- unmediated
- Media MARC source
- rdamedia
- Note
- GOBI Library Solutions from EBSCO
- Other physical details
- illustrations
- System control number
- (OCoLC)988749617
- Label
- Litigating across the color line : civil cases between black and white southerners from the end of slavery to civil rights, Melissa Milewski
- Bibliography note
- Includes bibliographical references and index
- Carrier category
- volume
- Carrier MARC source
- rdacarrier
- Content category
- text
- Content type MARC source
- rdacontent
- Dimensions
- 25 cm
- Extent
- ix, 345 pages
- Isbn
- 9780190249182
- Lccn
- 2017023644
- Media category
- unmediated
- Media MARC source
- rdamedia
- Note
- GOBI Library Solutions from EBSCO
- Other physical details
- illustrations
- System control number
- (OCoLC)988749617
Subject
- African Americans -- Legal status, laws, etc
- African Americans -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- Southern States -- Cases
- African Americans -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- Southern States -- History
- Courts
- Courts -- Southern States -- History
- History
- African Americans -- Civil rights
- Race discrimination -- Southern States -- History
- Southern States
- Trials, litigation, etc
- Race discrimination
- African Americans -- Civil rights -- Southern States -- History
Genre
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<div class="citation" vocab="http://schema.org/"><i class="fa fa-external-link-square fa-fw"></i> Data from <span resource="http://link.law.upenn.edu/portal/Litigating-across-the-color-line--civil-cases/90n-cKsd0s4/" typeof="Book http://bibfra.me/vocab/lite/Item"><span property="name http://bibfra.me/vocab/lite/label"><a href="http://link.law.upenn.edu/portal/Litigating-across-the-color-line--civil-cases/90n-cKsd0s4/">Litigating across the color line : civil cases between black and white southerners from the end of slavery to civil rights, Melissa Milewski</a></span> - <span property="potentialAction" typeOf="OrganizeAction"><span property="agent" typeof="LibrarySystem http://library.link/vocab/LibrarySystem" resource="http://link.law.upenn.edu/"><span property="name http://bibfra.me/vocab/lite/label"><a property="url" href="http://link.law.upenn.edu/">Biddle Law Library - University of Pennsylvania Law School</a></span></span></span></span></div>
