LibGuides: Racial and Social Justice: Home

Message from the Dean

We are in the midst of a movement that has sparked much needed conversations about a number of issues including racial inequality, police brutality, social justice, and white privilege. These are some very challenging times, as we fight against two pandemics: one of systemic racism and the second a medical virus that is disproportionately impacting the black community in glaring numbers. We have work to do in order to eradicate racism, make justice a reality for all, heal hearts and souls of a traumatized community, and bridge economic and social divides. Together, even in the midst of turmoil, we can and will chart a better future for our community and the world.

We are committed to making this a priority for NIU Law's Shapiro Memorial Law Library. And, I encourage you to explore the variety of resources and articles collected for you and made available through our LibGuide. Please reach out to engage us as we all work to improve the lives and experiences of those who have been victimized for far too long.

Dean Cassandra L. Hill

Aug. 31: NIU Law Hosts Inaugural Race and the Law Conversations on Police Reform NIU College of Law hosted its new lecture series—Race and the Law Conversations— on Wednesday, August 26. The inaugural conversation, “Understanding Issues of Police Accountability and Reform,” featured distinguished panelists Sharon Fairley, Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School and former Chief Administrator of the Independent Police Review Authority in Chicago, along with Paige Fernandez, Policing Policy Advisor for the ACLU National Political Advocacy Department. NIU Law Professor Paul Cain moderated the discussion.
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Full Recording available under "Race and Policing"

Upcoming Events

NIU Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Events For a full list of upcoming events, please view this calendar.

Law Library Resources

IICLE {Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education} [Access limited to current College of Law students & faculty within Swen Parson Hall only] This link opens in a new window Online handbooks, quick guides, & legal forms relevant to Illinois practice. Per the licensing agreement with the vendor, access is limited to currently enrolled students & current faculty of the College of Law.
American Law Institute Library {Hein} This link opens in a new window Contains full runs of the Institute's Annual Reports, Proceedings, Annual Meeting Speeches, and the Institute's newsletter, The ALI Reporter. It also includes the Restatements of the Law, Uniform Commercial Code, Model Penal Code, ALI-ABA Periodicals, and the Statement of Essential Human Rights (a pioneering ALI project of the mid-1940s).

Race, Law, and American Society by Gloria J. Browne-Marshall This second edition of Gloria Browne-Marshall's seminal work , tracing the history of racial discrimination in American law from colonial times to the present, is now available with major revisions. Throughout, she advocates for freedom and equality at the center, moving from their struggle for physical freedom in the slavery era to more recent battles for equal rights and economic equality. From the colonial period to the present, this book examines education, property ownership, voting rights, criminal justice, and the military as well as internationalism and civil liberties by analyzing the key court cases that established America's racial system and demonstrating the impact of these court cases on American society. This edition also includes more on Asians, Native Americans, and Latinos. Race, Law, and American Society is highly accessible and thorough in its depiction of the role race has played, with the sanction of the U.S. Supreme Court, in shaping virtually every major American social institution.
Call Number: Online: Ebook Central Academic Complete
ISBN: 9780415522144
Publication Date: 2013
Shades of Freedom by A. Leon Higginbotham Few individuals have had as great an impact on the law--both its practice and its history--as A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. A winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, he has distinguished himself over the decades both as a professor at Yale, theUniversity of Pennsylvania, and Harvard, and as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals. But Judge Higginbotham is perhaps best known as an authority on racism in America: not the least important achievement of his long career has been In the Matter of Color, the first volume in a monumentalhistory of race and the American legal process. Published in 1978, this brilliant book has been hailed as the definitive account of racism, slavery, and the law in colonial America.Now, after twenty years, comes the long-awaited sequel. In Shades of Freedom, Higginbotham provides a magisterial account of the interaction between the law and racial oppression in America from colonial times to the present, demonstrating how the one agent that should have guaranteed equaltreatment before the law--the judicial system--instead played a dominant role in enforcing the inferior position of blacks. The issue of racial inferiority is central to this volume, as Higginbotham documents how early white perceptions of black inferiority slowly became codified into law. Perhapsthe most powerful and insightful writing centers on a pair of famous Supreme Court cases, which Higginbotham uses to portray race relations at two vital moments in our history. The Dred Scott decision of 1857 declared that a slave who had escaped to free territory must be returned to his slaveowner. Chief Justice Roger Taney, in his notorious opinion for the majority, stated that blacks were "so inferior that they had no right which the white man was bound to respect." For Higginbotham, Taney's decision reflects the extreme state that race relations had reached just before the Civil War.And after the War and Reconstruction, Higginbotham reveals, the Courts showed a pervasive reluctance (if not hostility) toward the goal of full and equal justice for African Americans, and this was particularly true of the Supreme Court. And in the Plessy v. Ferguson decision, which Higginbothamterms "one of the most catastrophic racial decisions ever rendered," the Court held that full equality--in schooling or housing, for instance--was unnecessary as long as there were "separate but equal" facilities. Higginbotham also documents the eloquent voices that opposed the openly racistworkings of the judicial system, from Reconstruction Congressman John R. Lynch to Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan to W. E. B. Du Bois, and he shows that, ironically, it was the conservative Supreme Court of the 1930s that began the attack on school segregation, and overturned theconvictions of African Americans in the famous Scottsboro case. But today racial bias still dominates the nation, Higginbotham concludes, as he shows how in six recent court cases the public perception of black inferiority continues to persist.In Shades of Freedom, a noted scholar and celebrated jurist offers a work of magnificent scope, insight, and passion. Ranging from the earliest colonial times to the present, it is a superb work of history--and a mirror to the American soul.
Call Number: KF 4757 .H352 1996
ISBN: 9780195122886
Publication Date: 1998

Lexis+ Resources

Lexis {Lexis} [Access limited to College of Law] This link opens in a new window Professional legal research database. Access is limited to students, faculty & staff of the College of Law with a valid Lexis Advance login & password.
LexisNexis Digital Library {Lexis} [Access limited to College of Law] This link opens in a new window Contains a variety of Lexis and Matthew Bender titles (treatises, form books, and primary materials like USCS and court rules), NITA materials, and the “Understanding” series study aids The Overdrive platform used by LexisNexis Digital provides individual legal titles that we subscribe to in an eBook format. Check out and return the titles via the primary Overdrive website or access a mobile-optimized version. College of Law alumni may use this database; contact the Reference Desk for details.

Law Student Publications in focused on Race and the Law

Westlaw Edge Resources

Westlaw {West} [Access limited to College of Law] This link opens in a new window Limited to College of Law Students and Faculty

Law Student Publications Focused on Race and the Law

HeinOnline Resources

Hein Online {Hein} This link opens in a new window Variety of full text legal resources in PDF format, including more than 2,000 law and law-related periodicals, the Congressional Record Bound volumes in entirety, complete coverage of the U.S. Reports, legal classics from the 16th to the 20th centuries, the United Nations and League of Nations Treaty Series, all United States Treaties, the Federal Register from inception in 1936, the CFR from inception in 1938, and much more.

Law Student Publications in HeinOnline focused on Race and the Law

Northern Illinois UniversityCollege of LawDavid C. Shapiro Memorial Law Library

Racial and Social Justice: Home