Thursday, March 7, 2013

CIVIL RIGHTS HISTORY

Attended tonight at the University of South Carolina a lecture by Bancroft-winning legal historian Tomiko Brown-Nagin as part of her promtional tour, I guess, of her book Courage to Dissent: Atlanta and the Long History of the Civil Rights Movement (2011). As she described it, the work is a corrective to the common view of looking only at the big cases and lawyers (such as Brown and Marshall) and exploring the work of many lawyers in both fighting on a local level and contesting the focus of the struggle, as seen through the advocacy of Atlanta's CR lawyers. Sponsored by the Institue for African American Research and held at Cooper Library, Dr. Brown-Nagin sketched out the three major waves of legal involvement as it morphed from emphasis on voting rights and limited inclusion, to more radical push for complete equal rights, to an emphasis on making sure advances addressed poverty, housing, and other economic ills. I was dismayed somewhat by the low attendance, both from within the department and generally, especially by undergraduates (who seemed completely absent).

And this is only a light criticism, but someone needs to do a better job editing the IAAR newsletter.

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