Dylan Penningroth

With the long weekend in the books, summer’s officially here. School’s out, and we can’t imagine why people would be thinking about American universities – has anything interesting or controversial been happening on campus recently? (Our field correspondent David Pozen reports.) Anyway, today’s episode is the last episode of the season, and we’re excited to let this one linger in your minds for the next few months. Today’s very special guest is the MacArthur “Genius” Award-winning Dylan C. Penningroth, Professor of Law and Alexander F. and May T. Morrison Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley, here to discuss his wonderful new book Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights.

Penningroth begins by showing how his research expands the scope of African American history to everyday legal relations between Black individuals and discusses his great-great-great-uncle as a great example. After Sam and Penningroth frame the conversation as one about Black people using private rights in support of the southern economy, David follows up with a question about the inevitability of capitalism. Next, Penningroth makes the case that his account complements, instead of contradicts, the politically-focused work of W.E.B. DuBois and historians like Risa Goluboff and Eric Foner. We end this semester with some advice for social movements. See you on the other side, listeners.

This podcast is generously supported by Themis Bar Review.

Referenced Readings

• “The Privilege of Family History” by Kendra T. Field

• “Race in Contract Law” by Dylan C. Penningroth

• “Why the Constitution was Written Down” by Nikolas Bowie

• Nothing But Freedom: Emancipation and Its Legacy by Eric Foner

• Saving the Neighborhood: Racially Restrictive Covenants, Law, and Social Norms by Richard R. W. Brooks and Carol M. Rose

• The Lost Promise of Civil Rights by Risa L. Goluboff

• Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America’s Struggle for Equality by Richard Kluger