{"title":"CREATING WISE CLASSROOMS TO EMPOWER DIVERSE LAW STUDENTS: Lessons in Pedagogy from Transformative Law Professors","authors":"Sean Darling-Hammond, Kristen Holmquist","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.2599582","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.2599582","url":null,"abstract":"Many of today’s law students experience a triple-threat. They suffer from the solo status that accompanies being a member of an underrepresented group, the stereotype threat that accompanies being a member of a stereotyped group, and the challenges that attend lacking a background in the law before beginning law school. But today’s law schools often fail to create safe environments, teach foundational content and skills, or take basic steps toward providing instruction that ensures students from all backgrounds are empowered to thrive. While much has been written about improving legal education and about the failure of current pedagogies to provide a sound education to students experiencing this triple-threat, little has been written about approaches that ensure that these students succeed. This article is an attempt to identify an initial pathway forward. It builds off of research regarding legal pedagogy, inclusive pedagogy, and the results of eleven in-depth-interviews with “transformative professors” who UC Berkeley Law students identified as being skilled at creating safe spaces and ensuring that individuals from all backgrounds succeed academically. This rich data can inform professors and institutions across the state and country in their efforts to provide a legal education that, instead of simply benefiting the most privileged, provides a transformative education to all.We have used the term “safe” to describe techniques and environments that allay stereotype threat and solo status and allow students from underrepresented backgrounds to focus on learning.","PeriodicalId":82068,"journal":{"name":"National Black law journal","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68218716","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Emancipation: The Making of the Black Lawyer, 1844-1944","authors":"Cynthia R. Mabry","doi":"10.5860/choice.31-5086","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.31-5086","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":82068,"journal":{"name":"National Black law journal","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1994-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71045286","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Law of Freedom and Bondage: A Casebook by Paul Finkelman","authors":"J. K. Schafer","doi":"10.2307/2209373","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/2209373","url":null,"abstract":"BOOK BRIEFS The Law of Freedom and Bondage: A Casebook. By Paul Finkelman. New York, London, and Rome: Oceana Publications, Inc., 1986. Pp. 281 $30.00- (Cloth) (Paper $15.00) Reviewed by Judith K. Schafer* Scholars interested in the impact of slavery on the United States during the antebellum period and the thorny legal issues that bondage raised in free and slave states will be pleased by the appearance of Paul Finkelman's The Law of Freedom and Bondage: A Casebook. Although less complete than Helen T. Catterall's classic five-volume Judicial Cases Concerning American Slavery and the Negro, Finkelman's book is useful because it is organized by topics rather than by states and because it includes statutes and other primary materials on the law of slavery as well as reports of cases. The author chooses to omit the leading federal cases dealing with slavery in favor of little known and less accessible state cases because slavery had its greatest impact on state law during the antebellum period. The selections show that the perpetuation of slavery necessitated the passage of specific statutes to maintain the institu- tion and existing laws had to be interpreted to accommodate the peculiarities of the institution. The result of the author's efforts is a useful and interesting collection of important materials on the law of slavery. Finkelman concentrates on four broad topics: the origin of slavery, the abolition of slavery in the North, manumission of slaves in the South, and the criminal law of slavery. The first section presents materials that show how early colonial courts grappled with the complex legal issues presented by the conflict between slavery and common law precedents. For example, although common law precedent held that children followed the condition of the father, colonial slave law required children to follow the condition of slave mothers. As early as 1740, South Carolina law held that slaves shall follow the condi- tion of the mother 1, which came to be the law in all slave states. In the section on the abolition of slavery in the North, Finkelman presents cases and statutes arising from the abolition of slavery in England, the gradual abolition of slavery in the northern states, the passage of the Northwest Ordinance, and the problem of the status of a slave who entered a free state and was freed by touching free soil. Southern courts increasingly denied the liberating effect of free soil as they became more defensive about the institution of slavery. This issue would finally be decided in the United States Supreme Court's landmark decision in Dred Scott v. Sanford 2 . The section on manumission deals with freedom suits based on transpor- tation of a slave to a free state or territory as well as the growing tendency of * Visiting Lecturer in Law, Acting Director, Murphy Institute of Political Economy, Tulane University. 1. P. FINKELMAN, THE LAW OF FREEDOM AND BONDAGE 7 (1986). 2. 60 U.S. (19 How.) 393 (1856).","PeriodicalId":82068,"journal":{"name":"National Black law journal","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1987-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2307/2209373","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69385513","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Mutiny on the Amistad: The Saga of a Slave Revolt and Its Impact on American Abolition, Law, and Diplomacy by Howard Jones","authors":"C. L. Payne","doi":"10.1163/2468-1733_shafr_sim070090025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/2468-1733_shafr_sim070090025","url":null,"abstract":"Mutiny on the Amistad: The Saga of a Slave Revolt and It's Impact on Amer- ican Abolition, Law, and Diplomacy, By Howard Jones. Oxford: Oxford Uni- versity Press. 1987. Pp.ix, 271. Mutiny On The Amistad, is an account of how a shipload of African cap- tives one day appeared in New York harbor and confronted the American nation with the issue of slavery and the rights of Blacks. The book presents a step-by-step view of the preceeding turmoil among the American government, the Spanish government, the abolitionists who defended the captives, and the southern slaveowners. Chapter one gives a historical perspective of the circumstances which led to the Amistad's appearance in New York harbor in the summer of 1839. The Amistad captives were taken from Africa to Cuba in violation of Spanish law which forbad slave trading, but not slavery within Cuba. Once in Cuba, the slaves were sold to the owners and operators of the Amistad. On July 1, 1839, the captives led by Joseph Cinque, revolted and took control of the ship. They intended to have the ship return them back to Af- rica, however, due to their lack of navigational skills they had to rely on their new captives to sail the ship. The captain by day sailed the ship toward Africa but at night he turned the ship in a northernly direction towards the American coast. After nearly two months of zig-zagging, an American patrol ship seized the Amistad which was anchored off the coast of Long Island, N.Y. What followed was the judicial turmoil which Jones dedicated most of the book to analyze. Chapter two characterizes the effort of the abolitionists to use the Amis- tad case as an emotional arena to debate the issue of slavery. The two Spanish shipowners petitioned the U.S. government to return their property at once. The abolitionists were determined to establish that Black persons, irrespective of color, were human beings and thus were entitled to certain rights. The abolitionists attempted to appeal to the religious and moral ideals of the na- tion. They felt that before emancipation was achieved, they first had to evan- gelize the nation. The Amistad case presented a forum to force the nation to confront the horror of slavery. However strong the abolitionists' effort, they still were not able to curb the strong sentiment of racism even among themselves. Chapter three characterizes the turmoil which President Van Buren's ad- ministration was faced with. The abolitionists pleaded with him not to use executive authority to turn the ship, cargo, and captives over to Spain. The southerners demanded that the U.S. government stay out of Spanish law and turn the captives over to Spain. President Van Buren, thinking of reelection, took a laissez-faire attitude on the issue. His administration feared that whatever stand they took would offend some of their constituents. So they sat back and stayed soft on the issues and hoped that time would let the matter blow over. Chapter four presents the first trial along the ","PeriodicalId":82068,"journal":{"name":"National Black law journal","volume":"10 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1987-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64408012","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Charles Hamilton Houston","authors":"Genna Rae McNell","doi":"10.1215/9780822371670-016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822371670-016","url":null,"abstract":"THE BLA CK LA W JO URNA L PAGE 123 CHARLES HAMILTON HOUSTON By GENNA RAE McNEIL* C HARLES HAMILTON HOUSTON, the descendant of a line of free Blacks and slaves, was born September 3, 1895, in Washington, D.C., where he lived and worked until his death at the age of fifty-four in April, 1950. His parents were William LePre Houston, a lawyer, and Mary Ethel Hamilton Houston, a former teacher and hairdresser. To the extent that it was within their power, these two working parents provided a privileg- ed environment for their very capable only child. Houston attended M Street High School (subsequently renamed for the Black poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar), the college preparatory school for Blacks in Washington, D.C., and the surrounding area. At the age of nineteen, he graduated Magna Cum Laude with an honors degree in English and Phi Beta Kappa from Amherst College. The next two years he taught English at Howard Univer- sity's Commercial College. At the age of twenty-one Charles Houston entered the first Black officers' training camp, Fort Des Moines, where he earned his commission as a First Lieutenant in the Infantry. The Army's unfair assignment of a number of Black infan- try officers and disparaging reports regarding the ability of Blacks to train in the Special Services, however, offended and provoked Houston so much that he relinquished his rank and retrained to become a field artillery officer in the American Expeditionary Forces. As a Second Lieutenant overseas, he encountered virulent racism practiced by Red Cross workers, white enlisted men and his fellow white officers. Because of his race and color, he suffered arbitrary insults, indignities and exposure to mortal danger. Injustice at home and abroad prompted a decision to join his father in the practice of law. In the summer of 1919 following his dis- charge from the Army, racial violence erupted in Washington, D.C., and a score of other localities. Blacks were murdered and victimized. In the autumn following that Red Summer, Charles Houston entered Harvard Law School. He distinguished him- self at Harvard, being the first Black to serve on the Harvard Law Review, earning his LL.B. ('22) with an honors average and re- ceiving the Langdell Scholarship for further studies. Houston earned all A s in his fourth year of law studies during which time he was instructed by such men as Roscoe Pound and Felix Frankfurter.' In 1923 he ob- tained his Doctorate in Juridical Science and was awarded the prestigious Sheldon Travel- ing Fellowship which allowed him to study civil law at the University of Madrid and sit as an observer in the courts of Spain, Italy, Greece, Tunisia and Algeria. After Houston returned from southern Europe and northern Africa and joined the District of Columbia bar, his father proudly renamed the office, Houston & Houston . *B.A. Kalamazoo College; M. A. University of Chicago; Candi- date for PhD History, University of Chicago. Ms. McNeil's dissertation topic is: Charles Hamilt","PeriodicalId":82068,"journal":{"name":"National Black law journal","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1973-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66037981","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A New Role for the Black Law Graduate - eScholarship","authors":"H. Edwards","doi":"10.2307/1287443","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/1287443","url":null,"abstract":"A NEW ROLE FOR THE BLACK LAW GRADUATE* By HARRY T. EDWARDS I. THE PROBLEM N TERMS OF sheer numbers, progress may be the apt term to describe the developing status of Blacks in the legal profession. In the decade since 1960 the legal profession has become sensitized to the social problems stemming from the dire shortage of Black legal practitioners. The perceived societal need for greater numbers of Black attorneys has recently been exposed, studied, and debated at length within the legal community. 1 In this effort the needs of the larger com- munity, and the Black community within, have been analyzed by practitioners, legal scholars, and laymen alike to sup- port the case for expansion in the num- ber of Blacks practicing at the bar. Al- *This article is a revised version of an article on the same topic originally published in the August, 1971 edi- tion of the Michigan Law Review. The Michigan Law Reylew ha kindly consented to the republication ot the materials here presented. 1. See, e.g., D. Dennis, E. Jones, & M. Young, Task Force findings on Problems of Southern Black Law Practition- ers, Preliminary Report (1970) (unpublished report on file with Michigan Law Review) [hereinafter Task Force Report]; Aslkin, The Case for Compensatory Treatment, 24 Rutgers L. Rev. 65 (1969); Bell, In Defense of Minority Admissions Programs: A Response to Profes- sor Graglia, 119 U. Pa. L. Rev. 364 (1970); Browo, Racial Discrimination in the Legal Profession, 53 Judi- cature 385 (1970); Edwards, Black Perspective: Justice and the Judicial System, 15 L. Quadrangle Notes 20 (Univ. of Mich. L. S., Winter, 1971); Fleming & Pol- lack, An Exchange of Letters - The Black Quota at Yale Law School, 19 The Public Interest 44 (Spring, 1910); Gellhorn, The Law Schools and the Negro, 196% Duke L.J. 1069; Gellhorn, Address, in Assn. of An. Law Schools: Proceedings 28, 33-34 (1963); Gossett, Bar Must Encourage More Negro Lawyers, 4 Trial 22 (April-May 1968); Graglia, Special Admission of the Culturally Deprived to Law School, 119 U. Pa. L. Rev, 351 (1970); Leonard, Address to Assn. of Ant. though prior to the late 1960's thoughtful observation would have revealed the paucity of Black lawyers, it has taken the composite effect of the civil rights movement, the angry voices of militant Black organizations, the violence borne of frustration during long hot summers, and the incisive commentary of the Ker- ner Commission Report 2 to trigger a serious and accurate assessment of the impact of racial imbalance at the bar. The by-product of this effort at assess- ment has been the procreation of some excellent scholarly comment, which in turn has helped to produce long overdue programs designed to increase Black en- rollments at the major American law schools. 3 However, it is noteworthy that, with rare exception, most of the signifi- Law Schools Conference (New Orleans, La.) (April 1971) (unpublished speech on file with Michigan Law Review); McGee, Minority Students in Law School: Bl","PeriodicalId":82068,"journal":{"name":"National Black law journal","volume":"19 1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1971-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2307/1287443","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69106650","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Establishing the Rule of Law in Prisons: A Manual for Prisoners' Rights Litigation","authors":"W. Turner","doi":"10.2307/1227783","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/1227783","url":null,"abstract":"ESTABLISHING THE RULE OF LAW IN PRISONS: A MANUAL FOR PRISONERS' RIGHTS LITIGATION By WILLIAM BENNETT TURNER WILLIAM BENNETT TURNER earned his Bachelor of Science Degree from Northwestern University in 1959 and his LL.B. Degree from Harvard University in 1963. He is presently assistant counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Incorporated, San Francisco, California. F tions of life in prison were ignored by the OR plaints MOST OF HISTORY, the condi- com- of OUR prisoners about courts. Judicial review was avoided under the hands-off doctrine. 2 The courts rea- soned that the handling of persons con- victed of a crime was a difficult task that required considerable expertise that they did not possess. Therefore, the courts de- ferred in all matters of treatment of pris- oners to the presumed administrative ex- pertise of prison officials. 3 This immunity from judicial scrutiny led to a tradition of lawlessness in the corrections phase of the criminal process. The elaborate constitutional protections afforded the accused before and during trial stopped at the point of sentencing. What happen- ed to the convicted after sentencing was not a matter of judicial or, indeed, public concern. Yet more than 95 percent of the in- mates of the nation's prisons will return to society, either on parole or upon the expiration of their sentences. 4 The ex- perience of these inmates while in prison will largely determine their chances of becoming productive and law-abiding citizens after release. Thus, what happens in prison is of critical importance not only to the relatively few offenders who are caught and convicted of crimes but also to the nation, which faces a general crisis of crime control. It is perhaps with all this in mind that Chief Justice Burger described the prison system as the most neglected, the most crucial and probably the least understood phase of the admin- istration of justice. ' This Article deals with the rights of prisoners while incarcerated. It is not concerned with sentencing, probation, parole, 6 or postrelease civil disabilities. The author is grateful to his colleagues Stanley A. Bass and Alice Daniel for their helpful suggestions in the preparation of this article. . Landman v. Peyton, 370 F.2d 135, 140 (4th Cir. 1966). 2. Expression of the doctrine is found even in recent cases. E.g., We have consistently adhered to the so-called hands-off policy in matters of prison administration according to which we have said that the basic responsi- bility for the control and management of penal institu- tions, including the discipline, treatment, and care of those confined, lies with the responsible administrative agency and is not subject to judicial review unless exer- cised in such a manner as to constitute clear abuse or caprice upon the part of prison officials. Bethea v. Crouse, 417 F.2d 504, 505-06 (10th Cir. 1969). See also Starti v. Beto, 405 F.2d 858, 859 (5th Cir. 1969); Doug- las v. Sigler, 386 F.2d 684, 68 (8th Cir. 196","PeriodicalId":82068,"journal":{"name":"National Black law journal","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1971-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2307/1227783","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68239038","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Special Admission of the \"Culturally Deprived\" to Law School","authors":"Lino A. Graglia","doi":"10.2307/3311249","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/3311249","url":null,"abstract":"PAGE 232 PAGE 232 THE BLA CK LA W JO URNA L THE BLACK LA WJOURNAL SPECIAL ADMISSION OF THE CULTURALLY DEPRIVED TO LAW SCHOOL By LINO A. GRAGLIA* In the past few years many law school faculties have adopted a policy of granting ad- missions to a limited number of applicants who do not meet the school's usual minimum standards. This policy is often described as applicable to the culturally deprived, but cultural deprivation is seldom defined and neither a cultural opportunity test nor an economic status test is employed. The purpose of the policy, freely recognized within the law schools, is to increase Negro enrollment and, in some instances and usually to a lesser degree, enrollment of certain ethnic groups such as Mexican-Americans or Puerto Ricans. This has been the effect of the policy in operation.' At least one law school has gone further and directly established racial and ethnic group quotas.' The number of applicants admitted to a law school partially on the basis of racial or ethnic considerations cannot usually be precisely determined. The admissions committee in most law schools has a range of discretion; that is, applicants who do not quite meet the minimum standards for automatic ad- mission (nearly always a combination of college grade point average and score on the Law School Admission Test) may be ad- mitted if their records show some exceptional- ly favorable factor, such as markedly higher grades in later college years. Under the new policy, all or nearly all Negro applicants fall- ing within this range are admitted. These are not usually considered special admissions. Other Negro applicants falling below this nor- mal range of discretion are also admitted. As to these, the only minimum objective standard either established or applied may be a college degree where this is otherwise required. Only this latter group can be readily identified or recognized as specially admitted, although all or nearly all Negro applicants may be ad- mitted. Because no cultural deprivation test is in fact employed, Negroes may be specially admitted even though they are of middle class background, have professional parents, or otherwise appear to have had average or above average cultural opportunities. Opposition to a policy so obviously well- intentioned and based on humanitarian con- siderations is no labor of love. I feel, however, that the justifications for the policy have not been so much analyzed and argued as simply asserted or assumed, that the principle in- volved is objectionable and the factual premises questionable. Special admission standards for Negroes will, I fear, disserve the cause of Negro equality, impair educa- tional quality, and result in deviation of the schools from their educational function. In any event, because opposing considerations have not been adequately canvassed and weighed, further discussion seems desirable. The basic principle underlying the new ad- *Rex G. Baker and Edna Heflin Baker Professor in Constitution","PeriodicalId":82068,"journal":{"name":"National Black law journal","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1970-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2307/3311249","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69062335","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}