A monumental investigation of the Supreme Court's rulings on race, From Jim Crow To Civil Rights spells out in compelling detail the political and social context within which the Supreme Court Justices operate and the consequences of their decisions for American race relations. In a highly provocative interpretation of the decision's connection to the civil rights movement, Klarman argues that Brown was more important for mobilizing southern white opposition to racial change than for encouraging direct-action protest. Brown unquestioningly had a significant impact--it brought race issues to public attention and it mobilized supporters of the ruling. It also, however, energized the opposition. In this authoritative account of constitutional law concerning race, Michael Klarman details, in the richest and most thorough discussion to date, how and whether Supreme Court decisions do, in fact, matter.

Introduction; 1. The Plessy Era; 2. The Progressive Era; 3. The Interwar Period; 4. World War II Era: Context and Cases; 5. World War II Era: Consequences; 6. School Desegregation; 7. Brown and the Civil Rights Movement; Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index

Michael J. KlarmanJames Monroe Distinguished Professor of Law and Professor of History, University of Virginia

"Michael J. Klarman's monumental book--undertaking a sweeping exploration of the causes and consequences of all of the Supreme Court's race decisions from Plessy v. Ferguson to Brown vs. Board of Education--is likely to become the definitive study of the Supreme Court and race in the first half of the twentieth century. As a narrative history of the Court's actions on the broad array of constitutional issues relevant to racial equality--from criminal procedure to voting rights to desegregation--the book is an invaluable resource."--Reviews in American History