Carving Out A Humanity: Race, Rights, and Redemption

The preeminent civil rights attorneys and scholars of the past quarter-century weigh in on some of the most controversial aspects of race and the law, published to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the prestigious Derrick Bell Lecture Series. Originally delivered as Derrick Bell Lectures in a series at NYU School of Law, begun in 1995 and coming up through 2019, the pieces in Carving Out a Humanity offer an unprecedented array of today's most creative and brilliant thinking on race and the law.

Table of Contents:
Contents A Brief History of the Derrick Bell Lectures Introduction by Congresswoman Barbara Lee No Justice, No Peace Charles Ogletree Each Other's Harvest Charles Lawrence The Archetypes That Haunt Us Patricia J. Williams Derrick Bell's Toolkit—Fit to Dismantle That Famous House? Richard Delgado Enlisting Race, Resisting Power, Transforming Democracy Lani Guinier Accountability for Private Life Anita Allen Somebody Else's Child Mari Matsuda From the West to the Rest: Interest Convergence in California Racial Politics Cheryl I. Harris Envisioning Abolition: Sex, Citizenship, and the Racial Imaginary of the Killing State Kendall Thomas And We Are Still Not Saved: Twenty-First-Century Constitutional Conflicts Derrick Bell Racism as the Ultimate Deception John Calmore (Lecture Delivered by Derrick Bell) Like a Loaded Weapon Robert a. Williams A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice Paul Butler Between Slavery and Freedom: The Deep Racial Roots of the 2008 Financial Crisis Emma Coleman Jordan After Obama: Three "Post-racial" Challenges Devon w. Carbado Justice Undone: Color Blindness After Civil Rights Ian Haney López Critiquing the Family Tree: White Supremacy in the Writing of History Annette Gordon-Reed Badges and Incidents: Lingering Vestiges of Slavery and the Thirteenth Amendment William Carter Jr. The Criminal Injustice of Capital Punishment Stephen Bright What's Left Out of Brown Sherrilyn Ifill The Society We Want Michelle Alexander A Tale of Two Americas Theodore M. Shaw The Boundaries of Whiteness: From Till to Trayvon Angela Onwuachi-Willig Race, Violence, and the Word Kenneth W. Mack Tributes to Derrick Bell from the Bell Lecturers Acknowledgments Permissions

About the Author :
Janet Dewart Bell is a social justice activist with a doctorate in leadership and change from Antioch University. She founded the Derrick Bell Lecture on Race in American Society series at the New York University School of Law and is the author of Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement and Blackbirds Singing: Inspiring Black Women’s Speeches from the Civil War to the Twenty-First Century and the co-editor (with Vincent M. Southerland) of Carving Out a Humanity and Race, Rights, and Redemption (all published by The New Press). An award-winning television and radio producer, she lives in New York City. Vincent M. Southerland is an assistant professor of clinical law and co–faculty director of the Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law at NYU Law. The co-editor (with Janet Dewart Bell) of Carving Out a Humanity and Race, Rights, and Redemption (The New Press), he lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Review :
Praise for Carving Out a Humanity: "Penetrating essays on race and social stratification within policing and the law, in honor of pioneering scholar Derrick Bell. . . . Many powerfully acknowledge the persistence of structural racism and offer in-depth discussion regarding particular aspects of the law's effect on marginalized communities, resonant in an era of White supremacy's bid for mainstream acceptance." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “This potent work draws conclusions about systemic injustice and race. . . . Scholars and lay readers alike will be enlightened and spurred to thought and discussion.” —Library Journal