Waubonsee Community College

The sit-ins, protest and legal change in the civil rights era, Christopher W. Schmidt

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 191-250) and index

index present

non fiction

The sit-ins

bibliography

1004260005

Christopher W. Schmidt

The Chicago series in law and society

protest and legal change in the civil rights era

"The Sit-Ins tells the story of the student lunch counter protests and the national debate they sparked over the meaning of the constitutional right of all Americans to equal protection of the law. Christopher W. Schmidt describes how behind the now-iconic scenes of African American college students sitting in quiet defiance at "whites only" lunch counters lies a series of underappreciated legal dilemmas--about the meaning of the Constitution, the capacity of legal institutions to remedy different forms of injustice, and the relationship between legal reform and social change. The students' actions initiated a national conversation over whether the Constitution's equal protection clause extended to the activities of private businesses that served the general public. The courts, the traditional focal point for accounts of constitutional disputes, played an important but ultimately secondary role in this story. The great victory of the sit-in movement came not in the Supreme Court, but in Congress, with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, landmark legislation that recognized the right African American students had claimed for themselves four years earlier. The Sit-Ins invites a broader understanding of how Americans contest and construct the meaning of their Constitution"--Publisher's website

Introduction -- The students -- The lawyers -- The sympathizers -- The opponents -- The justices -- The lawmakers -- Conclusion