By hands now known : Jim Crow's legal executioners / Margaret A. Burnham.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Burnham, Margaret A., 1944- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African Americans--Civil rights--History--20th century.

African Americans.

African Americans--Crimes against--History--20th century.

Discrimination in criminal justice administration--United States--History--20th century.

Discrimination in criminal justice administration.

African Americans--Social conditions--To 1964.

African Americans--Civil rights.

African Americans--Crimes against.

African Americans--Social conditions.

United States.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xxiv, 328 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., [2022]

Summary:

"A paradigm-shifting investigation of Jim Crow-era violence, the legal apparatus that sustained it, and its enduring legacy, from a renowned legal scholar. If the law cannot protect a person from a lynching, then isn't lynching the law? In By Hands Now Known, Margaret A. Burnham, director of Northeastern University's Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project, challenges our understanding of the Jim Crow era by exploring the relationship between formal law and background legal norms in a series of harrowing cases from 1920 to 1960. From rendition, the legal process by which states make claims to other states for the return of their citizens, to battles over state and federal jurisdiction and the outsize role of local sheriffs in enforcing racial hierarchy, Burnham maps the criminal legal system in the mid-twentieth-century South, and traces the unremitting line from slavery to the legal structures of this period and through to today. Drawing on an extensive database, collected over more than a decade and exceeding 1,000 cases of racial violence, she reveals the true legal system of Jim Crow, and captures the memories of those whose stories have not yet been heard"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

"A new version of the old, old story"

"Mr. Ford's place"

"That dusky hospital on DeVilliers Street"

Bentonia blues

The one-way ride on Airline Highway

Resisting rendition

Who stays up north, who goes back down south

The Color Board

POB Noxubee, POD back of the bus

A Bus in Hayti

"Us colored . . . sat where we wanted to"

Double V on the bus

The departments : war and justice

The "Negro Transportation" File

Reconstruction statutes, Jim Crow Rules

"Her hips looked like battered liver"

"A little quick on the trigger"

"The testimony . . . of the Negroes seems more probable"

"Head . . . soft as a piece of cotton"

"None of Washington's business"

"Look to the states"

A "patently local crime"

"Victim . . . of a quarrelsome nature"

"Bad Birmingham"

Negroes are restless

"Mr. Van"

"Negro youth, shot near white residence, dies"

Abduction

"Negro leaders cry for justice in kidnap outrage"

Black captive, white capture

Redress

"Found floating in river . . . cause of death unknown"

"A fight with some sailors"

Owed? What? And by whom?

Epilogue.

Machine generated contents note: pt. I RENDITION

1. "A New Version of the Old, Old Story"

2. "Mr. Ford's Place"

3. "That Dusky Hospital on DeVilliers Street"

Pensacola To Black Bottom

4. Bentonia Blues

Yazoo County To Black Bottom

5. The One-Way Ride on Airline Highway

Crescent City To Black Bottom

6. Resisting Rendition

Legal Strategies And Political Advocacy

7. Who Stays Up North, Who Goes Back Down South

pt. II RACED TRANSPORTATION

8. The Color Board -

9. POB Noxubee, POD Back of the Bus

10. A Bus in Hayti

11. "Us Colored Sat Where We Wanted To"

12. Double V on the Bus

13. The Departments: War and Justice

14. The "Negro Transportation" File

pt. III PATEROLLERS AND PROSECUTORS

15. Reconstruction Statutes, Jim Crow Rules

16. "Her Hips Looked Like Battered Liver"

Tuskegee In The Middle District

17. "A Little Quick on the Trigger"

Union Springs In The Middle District

18. "The Testimony of the Negroes Seems More Probable"

19. "Head Soft as a Piece of Cotton"

Lafayette In The Middle District

20. "None of Washington's Business"

pt. IV THE SCREWS EFFECT

Racial Violence In The Supreme Court

21. "Look to the States"

22. A "Patently Local Crime"

23. "Victim of a Quarrelsome Nature"

pt. V BLACK PROTEST MATTERS

24. "Bad Birmingham"

25. Negroes Are Restless

26. "Mr. Van"

27. "Negro Youth, Shot Near White Residence, Dies"

pt. VI "HE THAT STEALETH A MAN"

28. Abduction

Southwest Mississippi

29. "Negro Leaders Cry for Justice in Kidnap Outrage"

30. Black Captive, White Capture

pt. VII "A MINT OF BLOOD AND SORROW"

31. Redress

The Problem Of The Twenty-First Century

32. "Found Floating in River Cause of Death Unknown"

33. "A Fight with Some Sailors"

34. Owed? What? And By Whom?.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Athenaeum copy: Hagen fund bookplate.

ISBN:

9780393867855

0393867854

OCLC:

1294287400