Forum From the Archives: ‘Before the Movement’: The Hidden and Vibrant History of Black Civil Rights

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 15 January 2024

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Court cases like the Dred Scott decision and Brown v. Board of Education are among the legal milestones that mark the arduous journey towards civil rights. But throughout the 19th century, ordinary Black Americans, freed and enslaved, sought to enforce their rights under the law. It’s a hidden and largely untold story of how Blacks both relied on, trusted in, and tried to leverage the legal system to establish and protect their rights, and it’s the subject of UC Berkeley historian Dylan Penningroth’s new book, “Before the Movement.” We’ll talk to Penningroth about his work. Guests: Dylan Penningroth, author, "Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights;" professor of law and history at U.C. Berkeley and associate dean of the Jurisprudence and Social Policy program. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	Support for Kikiwedi Podcasts comes from Rancho LaPuerta, boated the number one wellness resort and spa by readers of travel and leisure magazine. In August, three or four people sharing a cassida enjoy special vacation packages. Rancho LaPuerta.com
0:15.6	Support for Forum comes from Broadway SF, presenting Parade, the musical revival based on a true story.
0:23.0	From three-time Tony-winning composer Jason Robert Brown comes the story of Leo and Lucille Frank,
0:29.6	a newlywed Jewish couple struggling to make a life in Georgia. When Leo is accused of an
0:35.3	unspeakable crime, it propels them into an unimaginable test of faith, humanity, justice, and devotion.
0:43.3	The riveting and gloriously hopeful parade plays the Orphium Theater for three weeks only, May 20th through June 8th.
0:51.7	Tickets on sale now at Broadwaysf.com.
0:56.6	From KQED.
1:09.5	From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal with a special MLK Day edition of Forum from the Archives.
1:16.6	As we reflect on the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., we wanted to bring you the important work of UC Berkeley historian Dylan Penningrop,
1:23.6	whose book Before the Movement describes the everyday ways that black Americans use the legal system during the slavery, reconstruction, and Jim Crow eras.
1:33.0	It expands what we think of as African American history and shows how pragmatic things like property law and incorporation laid the groundwork for the success of the civil rights movement.
1:43.1	It's deep research that offers a different narrative of black lives in America,
1:47.0	including what feel like established facts about how slavery worked
1:51.0	and the origins of the civil rights movement.
1:53.0	That's all coming up next after this news.
2:00.0	Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal. Dylan Penning-Ross's new book before the movement
2:05.8	rests on a different kind of information from many other books about African-American history.
2:11.5	It's not reliant on black or white elites account, nor on the oral histories of enslaved people.
2:19.1	Instead, Penning Ross' research over the last nearly 20 years has resulted in a database of county court cases in which black people
2:25.6	brought the kinds of cases that everyone brings to county court, contract disputes, divorces,
2:31.3	the stuff of everyday life. This different evidence base leads Penning Roth to some startling conclusions about the way
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