Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Civil Rights with Dylan C. Penningroth

This episode will draw on an extraordinary range of sources, including state and federal appellate court records, forgotten county courthouse documents, family interviews, church records, and personal papers to reveal how African Americans understood, discussed, and used the law long before the better-known Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. In a society that denied many constitutional protections, Black communities built lives, families, businesses, and institutions by relying on what Professor Penningroth calls the common-law "rights of everyday use." The result is a richer, more complex portrait of Black life and the long struggle for freedom.

Professor Penningroth is Professor of Law and Morrison Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley, and an Affiliated Research Professor of the American Bar Foundation. A MacArthur Fellow, Before the Movement has received eleven major book awards and has been shortlisted for four more.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ancestor-s-footprints-with-bernice-alexander-bennett--6436157/support.

You can find Ancestor’s Footprints on Spreaker.com, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, Amazon Music, and many other platforms. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode.