African American Culture and Legal Discourse

LOVALERIE KING is Associate Professor of English, Affiliate Faculty in Women's Studies, and Director of the Africana Research Center at Penn State-University Park, USA.  RICHARD SCHUR is Associate Professor and Director of Interdisciplinary Studies at Drury University, USA.

• Introduction: Justice Unveiled; L.King & R.Schur PART I: RIGHTS AND SOVEREIGNTY Reading Back, Reading Black; B.Capers W.E.B. Du Bois and the Right to Privacy; K.F.C.Holloway Martin R. Delany and Rhetorics of Divided Sovereignty; R.R.Zuck On Black Freedmen; M.Fletcher It Falls to You: Rawls, Bartleby, and the Ethics of Affirmative Action in Charles Johnson's 'Executive Decision'; W.Gleason PART II: LEGAL VIOLENCE On Lucy Terry; S.Harris The Fire Next Time and the Law; D.Q.Miller 'Fists and the Voices of Sorrowful Women': Race, Gender, and the Law's Violence in Toni Morrison's Jazz; C.Copeland When Testimony Fails: Law and the Comforts of Intimacy in Gayl Jones's Corregidora; R.Wanzo PART III: OWNING CULTURE Papa's Got a Brand New Bag: James Brown, Innovation, and Copyright Law; K.J.Greene Legal Fictions: Trademark Discourse and Race; R.Schur The Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the (Over) Development of Gangsta Rap; A.Folami Afterword; L.King

"This is a highly original, engagingscholarly contribution to an understanding of African American life, language, and law. It takes law and literature to a whole new level. The informative essays that comprise the book, whether personal reflections or technical explorations of statutes, are nothing short of refreshing - bold, informative, full of surprises." - Anita L. Allen, University of Pennsylvania School of Law