Overview

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.

Full Product Details

Author:   Melissa Lambert Milewski (Lecturer in American History, Lecturer in American History, University of Sussex)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint:   Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions:   Width: 23.90cm , Height: 3.30cm , Length: 15.70cm
Weight:   0.621kg
ISBN:  

9780190249182

ISBN 10:   0190249188
Pages:   360
Publication Date:   28 December 2017
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  General ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Table of Contents

Reviews

"""Milewski (Univ. of Sussex, UK) offers a different story by looking at how African American litigants fared during Jim Crow in civil cases against white Southerners in former Confederate states....Outstanding for collections on US legal history, civil rights, and discrimination....Essential.""--CHOICE ""Milewski's book makes a substantial contribution to Southern legal history. Weaving the stories of individual litigants into the broader histories of Reconstruction and Jim Crow, this book brings ordinary African Americans to the forefront and demonstrates how they used performative strategies and exploited white notions of paternalism to navigate the legal system and win their suits."" -- Lydia J. Plath, The English Historical Review ""This is not an easy topic to research, and one of the pleasures of Litigating Across the Color Line is Milewski's discussion of the challenges posed by her research subject and the creative solutions upon which she settled....[I]mpressive archival research....[O]ffers powerful insights about dynamics of the black freedom struggle....The reconstruction of this remarkable story is a major contribution to legal historical scholarship.""--Christopher W. Schmidt, Jotwell ""Shining new light on race, rights, and justice, Melissa Milewski shows how ex-slaves found a measure of power by going to court in the Jim Crow South. This is a vivid and arresting account of legal conflict over property, contracts, fraud, and personal injury, and of challenges waged against white supremacy, disenfranchisement, and mob violence."" --Amy Dru Stanley, University of Chicago ""In this thoroughly researched, deeply nuanced, strongly revisionist example of the new cultural history of law, Melissa Milewski unearths the fascinating human stories of nearly a thousand civil lawsuits between blacks and whites in eight southern states from 1865 to 1950. Many readers will be surprised to learn that African-Americans won a majority of the cases, that black women were parties in 41% of them, and that African-Americans quickly learned to manipulate white supremacist beliefs to their advantage in the courts. Beautifully written, Milewski's book will be a landmark not only in legal history, but also in the history of the South and of race relations."" --J. Morgan Kousser, author of ""Colorblind Injustice"" ""Working from a database of ordinary civil cases in which African Americans were involved in the post-Reconstruction South, and enhanced by her exploration of the social and economic background of several of those cases, Melissa Milewski opens up new lines of thinking about how the law in a racist, grossly unequal society can both reproduce the society's power relations and deliver justice to the subordinated groups."" --Mark Tushnet, Harvard Law School ""In this engrossing and meticulous assessment of civil cases in local and state courts, Melissa Milewski builds on considerable research to discern African Americans' legal strategies for protecting their hard-earned rights and navigating the judicial landscape of the New South. She reveals the complexity of the region's legal culture and challenges notions that African Americans enjoyed no power within it by detailing their shrewd maneuvers to advance their cases through a system that, while uncompromising about protecting the larger white power structure, exercised more flexibility regarding individual cases surrounding such issues as labor, property, and physical damages. Readers will not be able to look at African Americans' participation in southern legal culture in the same way after absorbing Litigating Across the Color Line."" --Kidada E. Williams, author of ""They Left Great Marks on Me: African American Testimonies about Racial Violence from Emancipation to World War I"""

Milewski (Univ. of Sussex, UK) offers a different story by looking at how African American litigants fared during Jim Crow in civil cases against white Southerners in former Confederate states....Outstanding for collections on US legal history, civil rights, and discrimination....Essential. --CHOICE This is not an easy topic to research, and one of the pleasures of Litigating Across the Color Line is Milewski's discussion of the challenges posed by her research subject and the creative solutions upon which she settled....[I]mpressive archival research....[O]ffers powerful insights about dynamics of the black freedom struggle....The reconstruction of this remarkable story is a major contribution to legal historical scholarship. --Christopher W. Schmidt, Jotwell Shining new light on race, rights, and justice, Melissa Milewski shows how ex-slaves found a measure of power by going to court in the Jim Crow South. This is a vivid and arresting account of legal conflict over property, contracts, fraud, and personal injury, and of challenges waged against white supremacy, disenfranchisement, and mob violence. --Amy Dru Stanley, University of Chicago In this thoroughly researched, deeply nuanced, strongly revisionist example of the new cultural history of law, Melissa Milewski unearths the fascinating human stories of nearly a thousand civil lawsuits between blacks and whites in eight southern states from 1865 to 1950. Many readers will be surprised to learn that African-Americans won a majority of the cases, that black women were parties in 41% of them, and that African-Americans quickly learned to manipulate white supremacist beliefs to their advantage in the courts. Beautifully written, Milewski's book will be a landmark not only in legal history, but also in the history of the South and of race relations. --J. Morgan Kousser, author of Colorblind Injustice Working from a database of ordinary civil cases in which African Americans were involved in the post-Reconstruction South, and enhanced by her exploration of the social and economic background of several of those cases, Melissa Milewski opens up new lines of thinking about how the law in a racist, grossly unequal society can both reproduce the society's power relations and deliver justice to the subordinated groups. --Mark Tushnet, Harvard Law School In this engrossing and meticulous assessment of civil cases in local and state courts, Melissa Milewski builds on considerable research to discern African Americans' legal strategies for protecting their hard-earned rights and navigating the judicial landscape of the New South. She reveals the complexity of the region's legal culture and challenges notions that African Americans enjoyed no power within it by detailing their shrewd maneuvers to advance their cases through a system that, while uncompromising about protecting the larger white power structure, exercised more flexibility regarding individual cases surrounding such issues as labor, property, and physical damages. Readers will not be able to look at African Americans' participation in southern legal culture in the same way after absorbing Litigating Across the Color Line. --Kidada E. Williams, author of They Left Great Marks on Me: African American Testimonies about Racial Violence from Emancipation to World War I

Shining new light on race, rights, and justice, Melissa Milewski shows how ex-slaves found a measure of power by going to court in the Jim Crow South. This is a vivid and arresting account of legal conflict over property, contracts, fraud, and personal injury, and of challenges waged against white supremacy, disenfranchisement, and mob violence. --Amy Dru Stanley, University of Chicago In this thoroughly researched, deeply nuanced, strongly revisionist example of the new cultural history of law, Melissa Milewski unearths the fascinating human stories of nearly a thousand civil lawsuits between blacks and whites in eight southern states from 1865 to 1950. Many readers will be surprised to learn that African-Americans won a majority of the cases, that black women were parties in 41% of them, and that African-Americans quickly learned to manipulate white supremacist beliefs to their advantage in the courts. Beautifully written, Milewski's book will be a landmark not only in legal history, but also in the history of the South and of race relations. --J. Morgan Kousser, author of Colorblind Injustice Working from a database of ordinary civil cases in which African Americans were involved in the post-Reconstruction South, and enhanced by her exploration of the social and economic background of several of those cases, Melissa Milewski opens up new lines of thinking about how the law in a racist, grossly unequal society can both reproduce the society's power relations and deliver justice to the subordinated groups. --Mark Tushnet, Harvard Law School In this engrossing and meticulous assessment of civil cases in local and state courts, Melissa Milewski builds on considerable research to discern African Americans' legal strategies for protecting their hard-earned rights and navigating the judicial landscape of the New South. She reveals the complexity of the region's legal culture and challenges notions that African Americans enjoyed no power within it by detailing their shrewd maneuvers to advance their cases through a system that, while uncompromising about protecting the larger white power structure, exercised more flexibility regarding individual cases surrounding such issues as labor, property, and physical damages. Readers will not be able to look at African Americans' participation in southern legal culture in the same way after absorbing Litigating Across the Color Line. --Kidada E. Williams, author of They Left Great Marks on Me: African American Testimonies about Racial Violence from Emancipation to World War I

Shining new light on race, rights, and justice, Melissa Milewski shows how ex-slaves found a measure of power by going to court in the Jim Crow South. This is a vivid and arresting account of legal conflict over property, contracts, fraud, and personal injury, and of challenges waged against white supremacy, disenfranchisement, and mob violence. --Amy Dru Stanley, University of Chicago In this thoroughly researched, deeply nuanced, strongly revisionist example of the new cultural history of law, Melissa Milewski unearths the fascinating human stories of nearly a thousand civil lawsuits between blacks and whites in eight southern states from 1865 to 1950. Many readers will be surprised to learn that African-Americans won a majority of the cases, that black women were parties in 41% of them, and that African-Americans quickly learned to manipulate white supremacist beliefs to their advantage in the courts. Beautifully written, Milewski's book will be a landmark not only in legal history, but also in the history of the South and of race relations. --J. Morgan Kousser, author of Colorblind Injustice Working from a database of ordinary civil cases in which African Americans were involved in the post-Reconstruction South, and enhanced by her exploration of the social and economic background of several of those cases, Melissa Milewski opens up new lines of thinking about how the law in a racist, grossly unequal society can both reproduce the society's power relations and deliver justice to the subordinated groups. --Mark Tushnet, Harvard Law School In this engrossing and meticulous assessment of civil cases in local and state courts, Melissa Milewski builds on considerable research to discern African Americans' legal strategies for protecting their hard-earned rights and navigating the judicial landscape of the New South. She reveals the complexity of the region's legal culture and challenges notions that African Americans enjoyed no power within it by detailing their shrewd maneuvers to advance their cases through a system that, while uncompromising about protecting the larger white power structure, exercised more flexibility regarding individual cases surrounding such issues as labor, property, and physical damages. Readers will not be able to look at African Americans' participation in southern legal culture in the same way after absorbing Litigating Across the Color Line. --Kidada E. Williams, author of They Left Great Marks on Me: African American Testimonies about Racial Violence from Emancipation to World War I

Author Information

Melissa Milewski is a lecturer in American History at the University of Sussex. She edited Before the Manifesto: The Life Writings of Mary Lois Walker Morris, which won the Kanner Book Prize from the Western Association of Women Historians.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions