Venue: P674, Porhania, University of Helsinki.
Time: 15-16.30, 24.3.2026
Online attendance (webinar listen only):
Abstract:
What did law mean to African Americans before the civil rights movement? Weaving together family interviews and church records with long-forgotten documents found in county courthouse basements, Before the Movement tells a story about the changing meaning of civil rights, and about what it meant to be Black in America. As far back as the 1830s, Black people built lives for themselves through mundane “rights of everyday use” in a world that denied their constitutional rights. The things they did with law before the movement reshaped their families and communities. And it laid essential groundwork for the lawsuits and activism of the 1950s and 60s. The result was a rich vision of Black life―a vision allied with, yet distinct from, the freedom struggle.
Bio:
Dylan C. Penningroth is a professor of law and history at the University of California-Berkeley, whose work reshapes understanding of African American history and U.S. legal history. Professor Penningroth’s research covers areas such as African American history, the troubled history of race in contract law, the development of police power, the legacy of slavery in Ghana, and the role of Black churches in civil rights.
You can find Professor Penningroth’s latest book Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights here:
Welcome!