Copy for Fall, 2001 catalog

Racial Violence on Trial chronicles legal efforts to combat racial prejudice and hate in the United States, from the Civil war to present. It covers the history, follows the evolution, and explores the current climate of racial violence by examining key trials of persons charged with racially inspired murder. This one-of-a-kind book's features include:

• an A-Z listing of important people, terms, legislation, organizations, and more

• a documents section containing court decisions, transcripts, newspaper stories, personal accounts, and archives

• a tracking of Supreme Court justices' decisions as they change their mind about the role of due process in state trials and a presentation of death penalty statistics by race

• a review of states' anti-lynching laws enacted in the nineteenth century and the NAACP campaign against lynching

• coverage of how the media's increased attention to trials of of racial violence resulted in laws against "hate crimes"

• an examination of the government's ubiquitous role in race relations. 

A timeline, list of resources, annotated bibliography and detailed index complete this high interest title. 

Christopher Welder holds the Jamie and Phyllis Passer Chair in American History at San Francisco State University. His latest books include Night Riders: Defending Community in the Black Patch, 1890 - 1915, and Roots of Disorder: Race and Criminal Justice in the American South, 1817-1880.