Peter N. Herndon
A. FOR TEACHERS
Berry, Mary Frances and John W. Blassingame.
Long Memory. The Black Experience in America.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1982. 486 pages.
A compelling history, from Africa, to Black Nationalism of the 1960s and 70s. Especially useful was Chapter 7: “Blacks and Criminal Justice.” (pages 227-260)
Blauner, Robert.
Black Lives, White Lives. Three Decades of Race Relations in America.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989. 347 pages.
A fascinating series of essays in which 12 whites and 16 blacks confront issues of race over a 25-year span, from the 1960s to the late 1980s. Good student materials here.
Bullock, Charles S., III and Harrell R. Rodgers.
Racial Equality in America. In Search of an Unfulfilled Goal
. Pacific Palisades, CA: Goodyear Publishing Co., 1978. 178 pages.
Part of a series, “Law and Social Change and Black Political Attitudes”. Discusses caricatured black roles in film and television. Good section on legal remedies for discrimination in voting, public accommodations,
de jure
segregation, and overt and institutional racism.
Darden, Christopher A.
In Contempt.
New York: Regan Books, 1996. 387 pages.
Personal reminiscences of a key player in the Simpson trial. Insightful, personal and pulls no punches on Ito, Cochran, O.J., and Marcia Clark.
Dershowitz, Alan M.
Reasonable Doubts. The O.J. Simpson Case and the Criminal Justice System.
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996. 238 pages.
More on his own career as a lawyer and the system. Nothing really new here.
Fletcher, George F.
A Crime of Self-Defense: Bernard Goetz and the Law on Trial.
New York: Collier MacMillan, 1988. 253 pages.
Meticulously detailed account of the Goetz criminal case; a very thorough analysis of Goetz and the legal strategy behind his defense. Includes chapters such as “What the Jury Saw and Heard,” and “Mixed Messages.”
Greenberg, Jack.
Race Relations and American Law.
New York: Columbia University Press, 1959. 481 pages.
Author’s thesis is that law can and has changed race relations. Filled with examples of changes in race relations that have come about by changes in the law. Chapter one helpful to my paper.
Hacker, Andrew.
Two Nations: Black and White, Separate, Hostile, Unequal
. New York: Ballantine Books, 1995. 283 pages.
Excellent treatment of the subject from an historical, psychological and sociological viewpoint. Chapters 11, 12 and 13 deal directly with the role of race in crime and the “Two Verdicts” (black and white) in the Simpson trial. Must reading for social studies teachers. Filled with Tables and Charts.
Massey, Douglas S. and Nancy A. Dentin.
American Apartheid, Segregation and the Making of the Underclass
. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993, 292 pages.
Warns that racial inequality increases, so will fears, prejudices and hostilities. The authors urge the U.S. to dismantle residential segregation patterns, which is presently poisoning us and maintaining two societies, “separate and unequal.”
Shapiro, Robert L.
The Search for Justice: A Defense Attorney’s Brief on the O.J. Simpson Case
. New York: Warner Books, 1996. 363 pages.
Predictable. Reveals internal, sometimes infernal workings of the so-called “Dream Team,” most of whom the author had little respect for. Staunchly maintains O.J.’s innocence.
Uelmen, Gerald F.
Lessons from the Trial, The People v. O.J. Simpson
, Kansas City, MO: Andrews and McMeel, 1996. 223 pages.
Disappointingly uninspired treatment of the aftermath of the trial and the demands by some of reform the system; most of which he acknowledges but poo-poohs.