Thurgood Marshall's extraordinary contribution to civil rights and overcoming racism is more topical than ever, as the national debate on race and the overturning of affirmative action policies make headlines nationwide. Howard Ball, author of eighteen books on the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary, has done copious research for this incisive biography to present an authoritative portrait of Marshall the jurist. Born to a middle-class black family in "Jim Crow" Baltimore at the turn of the century, Marshall's race informed his worldview from an early age. He was rejected by the University of Maryland Law School because of the color of his skin. He then attended Howard University's Law School, where his racial consciousness was awakened by the brilliant lawyer and activist Charlie Houston. Marshall suddenly knew what he wanted to be: a civil rights lawyer, one of Houston's "social engineers." As the chief attorney for the NAACP, he developed the strategy for the legal challenge to racial discrimination. His soaring achievements and his lasting impact on the nation's legal system--as the NAACP's advocate, as a federal appeals court judge, as President Lyndon Johnson's solicitor general, and finally as the first African American Supreme Court Justice--are symbolized by Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark case that ended legal segregation in public schools. Using race as the defining theme, Ball spotlights Marshall's genius in working within the legal system to further his lifelong commitment to racial equality. With the help of numerous, previously unpublished sources, Ball presents a lucid account of Marshall's illustrious career and his historic impact on American civil rights.

In this book, Bonilla-Silva explores with systematic interview data the nature and components of post-civil rights racial ideology. Specifically, he documents the existence of a new suave and apparently non-racial racial ideology he labels color-blind racism. He suggests this ideology, anchored on the decontextualized, ahistorical, and abstract extension of liberalism to racial matters, has become the organizational matrix whites use to explain and account for racial matters in America.

"An intense and compact resource for understanding how the political economy of racism evolved in the United States."--Science & Society Racism is about more than individual prejudice. And it is hardly the relic of a past era. This scholarly, readable, and provocative book shows how the persistence of racism in America relies on the changing interests of those who hold the real power in society and use every possible means to hold onto it.

Why have racist attitudes persisted in America despite tremendous changes in education and socialization during the last four decades? In this book, Thomas Powell explains the patterns of beliefs, attitudes, and values that have supported these views. In a broad exploration that analyzes the values expressed by Western thinkers from the Enlightenment to contemporary thought, Powell reaches the controversial conclusion that racism is linked to many of our most cherished social, political, and religious values.

'...one of the most thorough attempts to explain why racism is still with us in these closing years of the twentieth century.'-THE NEW ENGLAND REVIEW OF BOOKS

Choice Top Book of 2017 Confronting and combating Islamophobia in America. Islamophobia has long been a part of the problem of racism in the United States, and it has only gotten worse in the wake of shocking terror attacks, the ongoing refugee crisis, and calls from public figures like Donald Trump for drastic action. As a result, the number of hate crimes committed against Middle Eastern Americans of all origins and religions have increased, and civil rights advocates struggle to confront this striking reality. In Islamophobia and Racism in America, Erik Love draws on in-depth interviews with Middle Eastern American advocates. He shows that, rather than using a well-worn civil rights strategy to advance reforms to protect a community affected by racism, many advocates are choosing to bolster universal civil liberties in the United States more generally, believing that these universal protections are reliable and strong enough to deal with social prejudice. In reality, Love reveals, civil rights protections are surprisingly weak, and do not offer enough avenues for justice, change, and community reassurance in the wake of hate crimes, discrimination, and social exclusion. A unique and timely study, Islamophobia and Racism in America wrestles with the disturbing implications of these findings for the persistence of racism—including Islamophobia—in the twenty-first century. As America becomes a “majority-minority” nation, this strategic shift in American civil rights advocacy signifies challenges in the decades ahead, making Love’s findings essential for anyone interested in the future of universal civil rights in the United States.

Most of these essays were originally presented at a conference in Madison, Wisconsin, November 1989. Two contributions giving historical perspective lead off: a personal memoir and discussion of the significance for America and the world of black protest. Fourteen contributions follow, on the legal struggle, the persistence of discrimination, and perspectives on the past and future. Paper edition (unseen), $17.95. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR