Civil Rights and the Making of the Modern American State

This book extends what we know about the development of civil rights and the role of the NAACP in American politics.

Megan Ming Francis (Author)

9781107037106, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 21 April 2014

216 pages, 8 b/w illus. 1 table
23.1 x 15 x 1.8 cm, 0.45 kg

'Francis challenges the way scholars have discussed the political and constitutional processes of state-building in the early 20th century by placing the NAACP and ordinary citizens as critical actors in the creation of modern institutional definitions of citizenship. … should be useful to researchers in the fields of African American and United States history considering the impact of black political activism and civil rights organizations … Francis's study should prove useful in re-conceptualizing how citizenship rights were expanded in the modern American state.' Samantha Bryant, Journal of African American History

Did the civil rights movement impact the development of the American state? Despite extensive accounts of civil rights mobilization and narratives of state building, there has been surprisingly little research that explicitly examines the importance and consequence that civil rights activism has had for the process of state building in American political and constitutional development. Through a sweeping archival analysis of the NAACP's battle against lynching and mob violence from 1909 to 1923, this book examines how the NAACP raised public awareness, won over American presidents, and secured the support of Congress. In the NAACP's most far-reaching victory, the Supreme Court ruled that the constitutional rights of black defendants were violated by a white mob in the landmark criminal procedure decision Moore v. Dempsey. This book demonstrates the importance of citizen agency in the making of new constitutional law in a period unexplored by previous scholarship.

1. Rethinking civil rights and American political development
2. The birth of the NAACP, mob violence, and the challenge of public opinion
3. The unsteady march into the Oval Office
4. Anti-lynching legislation and the sinking of the Republican ship in Congress
5. Defending the right to live
6. Civil rights bound
Appendix: manuscript sources.

Subject Areas: Political science & theory [JPA], Politics & government [JP]