Law, Jurisp & Social Thought 258 - The Problem of the Color-Line

Although, as W. E. B. Du Bois wrote in 1903, the problem of the twentieth century was “the problem of the color-line,” racial segregation remains an intractable feature of American life today. This course will begin with the formal dismantling of racial segregation in the mid-twentieth century. Why, despite the historic convergence of grassroots activism, public opinion, and Supreme Court decision making during the civil rights era, does race- and class-based segregation continue to shape American schools, neighborhoods, and parks? What role does law play in producing and maintaining segregation, and how might law be used to mitigate and even reverse it? Are changes to federal law, absent changes to state and local laws, sufficient to achieve integration? What does literary expression reveal about how segregated space is regulated and reproduced, who is implicated in that process, and how to make sense of or combat it? We will begin with landmark Supreme Court cases, including Shelley v. Kraemer (1948), Brown v. Board of Education I & II (1954, 1955), and Milliken v. Bradley (1974), and midcentury literary responses to segregation, including works by Richard Wright, Ann Petry, Gwendolyn Brooks, Lorraine Hansberry, and James Baldwin. We will then consider alternative levers of change, exploring the Black separatist tradition, court cases at the state and local level, innovative approaches imagined by writers and activists, and recent developments that threaten to entrench segregation further. Topics will include redlining and racial covenants, the state action doctrine, the public/private divide, the public square and the public trust doctrine, and redistricting and incorporation. Students will conduct a site-specific inquiry, exploring the interaction of law and culture in policing or contesting the boundaries of a single place.

Limited to 30 students. Offered Fall Semester 2025. Professor Brush.

How to handle overenrollment: Priortiy given to LJST Majors

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Written analysis, short oral presentations, in-class discussion and small-group work, in-class quizzes or midterm exam, independent research project