Race on Trial: Law and Justice in American History

by Annette Gordon-Reed (Editor)

This book of twelve original essays will bring together two themes of American law and race. The essays fall into four cases that are essential to the history of race in America; cases that illustrate the treatment of race in American history; cases of great fame that became the trials of the century of their time; and cases that made important law. Some of the cases discussed include Amistad, Dred Scott, Plessy v. Ferguson, Scottsboro, Korematsu v. US, Brown v. Board, Loving v. Virginia, Regents v. Bakke, and OJ Simpson. All illustrate how race often determined the outcome of trials, and how trials that confront issues of racism provide a unique lens on American cultural history. Cases include African-Americans, Asian-Americans, and Caucasians. Contributors include a mix of junior and senior scholars in law schools and history departments.

Genres: History, Law, Race, American History, College

248 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2002

About the author

Annette Gordon-Reed is an American historian, legal scholar, and professor whose groundbreaking research transformed modern understanding of Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings, and the Hemings family. Combining the methods of legal analysis with historical scholarship, she challenged long-standing assumptions about Jefferson's private life and demonstrated how racial bias had shaped generations of historical interpretation. Her influential first book, Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy, prompted a fundamental reassessment of the evidence surrounding the Jefferson-Hemings relationship, while later DNA findings reinforced many of her conclusions. She expanded this work in the award-winning The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, a landmark study that restored the Hemings family to the center of the American story and earned the Pulitzer Prize for History, the National Book Award for Nonfiction, and numerous other honors. Gordon-Reed has also written on Reconstruction, race, and American political history, including a widely praised study of President Andrew Johnson, and collaborated with civil rights leader Vernon Jordan on his memoir. Educated at Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School, where she became the first African American editor of the Harvard Law Review, she began her career as an attorney before moving into academia. After teaching law and history at New York Law School and Rutgers University, she joined Harvard University, where she holds appointments in both disciplines and has received the institution's highest faculty distinction as Carl M. Loeb University Professor. Her many honors include the National Humanities Medal, a MacArthur Fellowship, election to the American Philosophical Society, and membership in the British Academy. Through meticulous research and compelling narrative, Gordon-Reed has reshaped the study of early American history, demonstrating how careful examination of overlooked evidence can transform accepted historical narratives and deepen our understanding of slavery, law, family, and the nation's founding.