This work examines the experiences of African Americans under the law and how African American culture has fostered a rich tradition of legal criticism. Moving between novels, music, and visual culture, the essays present race as a significant factor within legal discourse. Essays examine rights and sovereignty, violence and the law, and cultural ownership through the lens of African American culture. The volume argues that law must understand the effects of particular decisions and doctrines on African American life and culture and explores the ways in which African American cultural production has been largely centered on a critique of law.

"This is a highly original, engagingscholarly contribution to an understanding of African American life, language, and law. It takes law and literature to a whole new level. The informative essays that comprise the book, whether personal reflections or technical explorations of statutes, are nothing short of refreshing - bold, informative, full of surprises." - Anita L. Allen, University of Pennsylvania School of Law

Autorentext

LOVALERIE KING is Associate Professor of English, Affiliate Faculty in Women's Studies, and Director of the Africana Research Center at Penn State-University Park, USA .

RICHARD SCHUR is Associate Professor and Director of Interdisciplinary Studies at Drury University, USA .

Inhalt
Introduction: Justice Unveiled; L.King & R.Schur PART I: RIGHTS AND SOVEREIGNTY Reading Back, Reading Black; B.Capers W.E.B. Du Bois and the Right to Privacy; K.F.C.Holloway Martin R. Delany and Rhetorics of Divided Sovereignty; R.R.Zuck On Black Freedmen; M.Fletcher It Falls to You: Rawls, Bartleby, and the Ethics of Affirmative Action in Charles Johnson's 'Executive Decision'; W.Gleason PART II: LEGAL VIOLENCE On Lucy Terry; S.Harris The Fire Next Time and the Law; D.Q.Miller 'Fists and the Voices of Sorrowful Women': Race, Gender, and the Law's Violence in Toni Morrison's Jazz; C.Copeland When Testimony Fails: Law and the Comforts of Intimacy in Gayl Jones's Corregidora; R.Wanzo PART III: OWNING CULTURE Papa's Got a Brand New Bag: James Brown, Innovation, and Copyright Law; K.J.Greene Legal Fictions: Trademark Discourse and Race; R.Schur The Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the (Over) Development of Gangsta Rap; A.Folami Afterword; L.King