Law and Mass Politics in the Making of the Civil Rights Lawyer, 1931-1941
View/ Open
Mack_LawMassPolitics (2.500Mb)
Access Status
Full text of the requested work is not available in DASH at this time ("dark deposit"). For more information on dark deposits, see our FAQ.Author
Published Version
http://www.jah.oxfordjournal.org/content/93/1/37.full.pdfMetadata
Show full item recordCitation
Kenneth W. Mack, Law and Mass Politics in the Making of the Civil Rights Lawyer, 1931-1941, 93 J. Am. Hist. 37 (2006).Abstract
What was the role of law and lawyers in the civil rights movement? Recent work has emphasized a tension between the legal strategies of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and a commitment to mass movement politics and economic populism. This article takes up that question by examining the everyday lives and litigation performances of depression-era black lawyers affiliated with the NAACP, arguing that the scholarly debate should be reframed through attention to the role of courtroom performances as crucial sites where race and professional identity was made and remade for civil rights lawyers such as Charles Houston, Raymond Pace Alexander, William Hastie, and Thurgood Marshall. Responding to the critics on their left, the lawyers fashioned a new professional identity that melded the NAACP's traditional approaches and concerns with a commitment to mass democratic politics.Citable link to this page
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:9687857
Collections
- HLS Scholarly Articles [1885]
Contact administrator regarding this item (to report mistakes or request changes)