Root and Branch: Charles Hamilton Houston, Thurgood Marshall, and the Struggle to End Segregation - Softcover

James Jr., Rawn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1608193896 ISBN 13: 9781608193899

Publisher: Bloomsbury Press, 2013

Synopsis

Although widely viewed as the beginning of the legal struggle to end segregation, the U.S. Supreme Court's decision Brown v. Board of Education was in fact the culmination of decades of court challenges led by a band of lawyers intent on dismantling Jim Crow one statute at a time.

Charles Hamilton Houston laid the groundwork, reinventing the law school at Howard University (where he taught a young, brash Thurgood Marshall) and becoming special counsel to the NAACP. Later, Houston and Marshall traveled through the South, often at great personal risk, chipping away, case by case, at the legal foundations of racial oppression. The buttoned-up Houston and the easygoing Marshall made an unlikely pair-but their partnership made an unforgettable impact on American history.

About this title

About the Author

A graduate of Yale University and Duke University School of Law, Rawn James, Jr., has practiced law for a decade in Washington, D.C., where he lives with his wife and their children.

From Booklist

James successfully reincarnates the life of Charles Hamilton Houston, who graduated from Amherst College and Harvard Law School (serving as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review) and served in the army during World War I. As dean of the Howard Law School, he modeled the rigor and organization of Harvard Law School and the army to produce top-rated lawyers who committed their careers to overturning Jim Crow laws. One of his students was Thurgood Marshall. The book portrays the partnership of Houston (as legal theorist, strategist, and mentor), Thurgood Marshall (disciple), and Walter White (NAACP chief and financier), and other civil-rights lawyers. They repeatedly went before the U.S. Supreme Court and its affiliates to argue in favor of ending lynching, the poll tax, all-white juries, pay inequality, and unequal educational opportunity for blacks and whites. Younger readers will also learn about the systematic nature of the sacrifices made and the struggle for the U.S. to abide by its luminous promise to ensure safety and provide equal opportunity for all Americans.Very informative, serious, and easy to read. --Mohamed Sherriff

Edition details

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1608193896
• ISBN 13: 9781608193899
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 288