{"product_id":"litigating-across-the-color-line-civil-cases-between-black-and-white-southerners-from-the-end-of-slavery-to-civil-rights-9780190249182","title":"Litigating Across the Color Line: Civil Cases Between Black and White Southerners from the End of Slavery to Civil Rights","description":"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\u003cbr\u003ethey 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\u003cbr\u003elitigants throughout the South took on white southerners in civil suits and, at times, succeeded in finding justice in the Southern courts. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBetween 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\u003cbr\u003eof 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\u003cbr\u003eof 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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cem\u003eLitigating Across the Color Line\u003c\/em\u003e 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\u003cbr\u003ethese 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\u003cbr\u003ecases heard.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Melissa Milewski\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Oxford University Press, USA\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 11\/29\/2017\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 360\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.37lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.40h x 6.20w x 1.30d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780190249182\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 04\/01\/2018\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMelissa Milewski \u003c\/strong\u003eis a lecturer in American History at the University of Sussex. She edited \u003cem\u003eBefore the Manifesto: The Life Writings of Mary Lois Walker Morris\u003c\/em\u003e, which won the Kanner Book Prize from the Western Association of Women Historians.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Oxford University Press, USA","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":39927193960563,"sku":"9.78E+12","price":45.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0555\/9255\/0515\/products\/img_80202e5a-70ac-41c3-a226-607cc7fdd976.jpg?v=1647524021","url":"https:\/\/bookstorenmore.com\/products\/litigating-across-the-color-line-civil-cases-between-black-and-white-southerners-from-the-end-of-slavery-to-civil-rights-9780190249182","provider":"Bookstore N More","version":"1.0","type":"link"}