Civil Rights in America
A History

This book tells the story of how Americans, from the Civil War through today, have fought over the meaning of civil rights.

Christopher W. Schmidt (Author)

9781108444972, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 17 December 2020

250 pages
23.5 x 15.3 x 1.3 cm, 0.4 kg

'Schmidt provides a sweeping view of the history of civil rights in America that few other books can match.' Adam Lee Cilli, Journal of Southern History

The term 'civil rights' has such a familiar presence in discussions about American politics and law that we tend to use it reflexively and intuitively, but rarely do we stop to think about what exactly we mean when we use the term and why certain uses strike us as right or wrong. In this book, Professor Christopher W. Schmidt tells the story of how Americans have fought over the meaning of civil rights from the Civil War through today. Through their struggles over what it means to live in a nation dedicated to protecting civil rights, each generation has given the label new life and new meaning. Civil Rights in America shows how the words we use to understand our world become objects of contestation and points of leverage for social, political, and legal action.

Introduction
1. The birth of civil rights – reconstruction
2. The transformation of civil rights – the Jim Crow years
3. Civil rights reborn – the 1940s and 1950s
4. Beyond civil rights – the 1960s
5. Getting right with the civil rights movement
6. Civil rights everywhere
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Human rights & civil liberties law [LNDC], Civil rights & citizenship [JPVH1], History of the Americas [HBJK]