Race & Poverty Law

Course Number:
Law 249

Hours:
3

Course Type:
Upper-Level

Writing Requirement:
None

Skills Requirement?:
No

Final Exam?:
Yes

Description:

This course examines the Congressional and Supreme Court response, during the 19th and 20th centuries, to the interrelated social, economic and legal issues posed by the issue of race, focusing on African Americans and public education. The course examines the legal campaign, conducted by the NAACP and others, that led to Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, and traces successes and failures of the post-Brown constitutional litigation effort in the field of public education. 

Next, we briefly review the Supreme Court's constitutional approach to property rights and campaign to protect those rights in the latter 19th and early 20th centuries. We examine the federal executive, legislative and judicial response to (i) the widespread poverty of the Great Depression of the 1930s, and (ii) to the organized "law reform" effort to create constitutional protections for poor people in the late 1960s. 

In the latter days of the course, we conjoin themes of race and poverty as we examine the plight of the contemporary minority poor from the perspective of several academic disciplines, including sociology, economics, geography, and political science. Finally, we ask ourselves about whether, and how, constitutional doctrine might influence public policy on race and poverty in the future.

 

Prerequisites:

Instructor(s):
J. Boger

Semester(s):
Fall