National Constitution Week: Racial & Social Justice

Even a cursory look at U.S. society today reveals that protests against racial discrimination are by no means a thing of the past. What can we learn from past movements in order to understand the workings of racism and resistance? In this book, Franziska Meister revisits the Black Panther Party and offers a new perspective on the Party as a whole and its struggle for racial social justice. She shows how the Panthers were engaged in exposing structural racism in the U.S. and depicts them as uniquely resourceful, imaginative and subversive in the ways they challenged White Supremacy while at the same time revolutionizing both the self-conception and the public image of black people. Meister thus highlights an often marginalized aspect of the Panthers: how they sought to reach a world beyond race - by going through race. A message well worth considering in an age of "color blindness".

We all know that orange is the new black and mass incarceration is the new Jim Crow, but how much do we actually know about the structure, goals, and impact of our criminal justice system? Understanding Mass Incarceration offers the first comprehensive overview of the incarceration apparatus put in place by the world’s largest jailer: the United States. Drawing on a growing body of academic and professional work, Understanding Mass Incarceration describes in plain English the many competing theories of criminal justice--from rehabilitation to retribution, from restorative justice to justice reinvestment. In a lively and accessible style, author James Kilgore illuminates the difference between prisons and jails, probation and parole, laying out key concepts and policies such as the War on Drugs, broken windows policing, three-strikes sentencing, the school-to-prison pipeline, recidivism, and prison privatization. Informed by the crucial lenses of race and gender, he addresses issues typically omitted from the discussion: the rapidly increasing incarceration of women, Latinos, and transgender people; the growing imprisonment of immigrants; and the devastating impact of mass incarceration on communities. Both field guide and primer, Understanding Mass Incarceration will be an essential resource for those engaged in criminal justice activism as well as those new to the subject.

Drawing on the most recent scholarship, The Civil Rights Movement provides a concise overview of the most important social movement of the 20th century and will expand readers' understanding of the fight for racial equality. Ideal for research, this one-stop reference provides a unique introduction to the Civil Rights Movement as it includes its development, issues, and leaders. Six essays capture the drama and conflict of the struggle, covering, among other topics, the origins of the movement, the role of women, the battle for racial equality in the North, and the lasting effects of the protests of the 1950s and 1960s. Ready-reference features include a chronology, a bibliography, photographs, and biographical profiles of 20 activists, from Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X to Ella Baker and Angela Davis. The book also contains a selection of primary sources, including presidential addresses, Supreme Court decisions, and FBI reports on Malcolm X and Stokeley Carmichael. Based on the latest scholarship in the field, this guide gives readers all of the analysis and reference sources they need to expand their understanding of the Civil Rights movement. Offers up to date information based on the latest scholarship in the field Combines analytical essays with historical documents and concise biographies Examines traditional as well as new themes, from the rise of Martin Luther King, Jr. to the battle against Jim Crow in the North Ties the historic struggles of the 1950s and 1960s to the movements today against mass incarceration and police abuse

Antiracism Inc. traces the ways people along the political spectrum appropriate, incorporate and neutralize antiracist discourses to perpetuate injustice. It also examines the ways organizers continue to struggle for racial justice in the context of such appropriations. Antiracism Inc. reveals how antiracist claims can be used to propagate racism, and what we can do about it. While related to colorblind, multicultural, and diversity discourses, the appropriation of antiracist rhetoric as a strategy for advancing neoliberal and neoconservative agendas is a unique phenomenon that requires careful interrogation and analysis. Those who co-opt antiracist language and practice do not necessarily deny racial difference, biases, or inequalities. Instead, by performing themselves conservatively as non-racists or liberally as ‘authentic’ antiracists, they purport to be aligned with racial justice even while advancing the logics and practices of systemic racism.Antiracism Inc. therefore considers new ways of struggling toward racial justice in a world that constantly steals and misuses radical ideas and practices.

Racial Justice in America examines a volatile social issue that is always in the news, focusing on five critical areas: criminal justice, education, employment, living accommodations, and political participation. By 1451, Africans were used as slaves in the Madeiras and Canary Islands. Not until 1502 did they arrive in the New World. All told, nearly 10 million Africans--equal to the year 2000 populations of Virginia and Mississippi combined--were transplanted across the Atlantic as slaves. Despite the termination of the U.S. slave trade in l807 and emancipation after the Civil War, members of a racial couple married as late as l958 were jailed for one year for breaking Virginia's antimiscegenation law. So where are we today? This book, which provides historical perspective and a discussion of different types of discrimination, examines how systemic changes have been made and analyzes the debates that still exist. An introductory essay briefly reviews the history of Africans in America, then examines five areas of life where racial justice has been particularly relevant The book includes coverage of significant people, places, and events, from the abolition of slavery in Vermont in 1777, to the shocking murder of Medgar Evers in 1963, to the triumphant grand slam by golfer Tiger Woods in 2000-2001