96. Shades of Freedom: Racial Politics and Presumptions of the American Legal Process Race and the American Legal Process - A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr.

I was incredibly impressed by this well-researched and well-documented book by Higginbotham, a former Third Circuit judge. He gives a very thorough analysis of the "interaction between the law and racial oppression in America" (from the back of the book - but said so well). The first part of the book explains how perceptions of black inferiority developed, and how they came to influence our society so much. He also discusses the U.S. Constitution's references to slavery; the Supreme Court's sanction of racism in decisions like Plessy v. Ferguson and Dred Scott v. Sanford; and the unequal criminal justice system.
One passage that jumped out to me was from a part in which Higginbotham was discussing Harriet Beecher Stowe's book, Uncle Tom's Cabin:

Those who are oppressed may have the capacity to be brave and noble like everyone else, but the oppression itself is probably not what makes them brave and noble. Those who are oppressed may be in possession of certain absolute and simple truths beyond the knowledge of others, but chief among those truths is that freedom is preferable to oppression. Yet those who insist on seeing beauty in oppression often do so to assuage their guilt for contributing to that oppression. That is why the temptation to find beauty and nobility in suffering and oppression has a long and distinguished history.

Also, from the Dred Scott decision: did you know that Chief Justice Taney made twenty-one references to African Americans as inferior and to whites as dominant or superior? (i.e. African Americans being an "inferior class of beings"; an "unfortunate race"; and "unfit to associate with the white race"). And of course we all know that blacks were unable to serve as witnesses or jurors in court. This especially posed problems where a white man was sued by a black man, or was prosecuted for a crime against a black man, because the black man could not testify; nor could black witnesses. Clearly, this often led to a miscarriage of justice. To imagine a time where such things overtly pervaded our legal system.

And from President Abraham Lincoln:

I am not, nor have I ever been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races .... and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together, there must be the position of superior and inferior, I am as much as any other man in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.

I think a lot of people forget how pervasive these beliefs were, and how they really influenced not only behavior but legislation and jurisprudence!

How humbling to have finished reading this book the same day that I was sworn in as a lawyer.