Race, Racism, and Law

This course uses a historical approach to introduce students to the role of law and lawyers in the creation of race and racism as ideologies, structures, and practices, and the role of race and racism in shaping legal institutions, processes, and outcomes. The course will also emphasize the ways that over the course of U.S. history subordinated people and social movements have made claims on and used legal institutions and processes to challenge racism and racial subordination. Students will learn the history of a key institution in the United States, slavery; understand the connections between slavery in the past and regimes of racial inequality in the present; and put into critical context the study of first-year legal subjects such as contracts, property, criminal law, and constitutional law. The final grade will be based on brief reading quizzes, class participation, and a final in-class essay exam.