Description
Book SynopsisA searing--and sobering--account of the legal and extra-legal means by which systemic white racism has kept Black Americans ''in their place'' from slavery to police and vigilante killings of Black men and women, from 1619 to the present.From the arrival of the first English settlers in America until now-a span of four centuries-a minority of white men have created, managed, and perpetuated their control of every major institution, public and private, in American society. And no group in America has suffered more from the harms imposed by white men''s laws than African Americans, with punishment by law often replaced by extra-legal means. Over the centuries, thousands of victims have been murdered by lynching, white mobs, and appalling massacres.In White Men''s Law, the eminent scholar Peter Irons makes a powerful and persuasive case that African Americans have always been held back by systemic racism in all major institutions that can hold power over them. Based on a wide range of sou
Trade ReviewThe book Irons' has written is brilliant analysis of just how deep and pervasive our history of racial inequality remains. * William H. Chafe, Journal of Southern History *
Table of ContentsPreface: "They've Got Him!" Ch. 1: "Thirty Lashes, Well Laid On" Ch. 2: "Dem Was Hard Times, Sho Nuff" Ch. 3: "Beings of An Inferior Order" Ch. 4: "Fighting For White Supremacy" Ch. 5: "The Foul Odors of Blacks" Ch. 6: "Negroes Plan to Kill All Whites" Ch. 7: "Why Don't Dmocracy Include Me?" Ch 8: "I Thanked God Right Then and There" Ch 9: "War Against the Constitution" Ch 10: "Two Cities-One White, the Other Black" Ch 11: "All Blacks Are Angry" Ch 12: "The Basic Minimal Skills" References
