Kangaroo Court: The Black Power Movement and the Courtroom as a Space of Resistance

Scholars in many disciplines have examined how social movements use the law to create social change. While the study of the law and social movements has largely relied on studies of the US civil rights movement to develop theoretical tools for understanding how movements target the state to create l...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe American behavioral scientist (Beverly Hills) Vol. 66; no. 11; pp. 1539 - 1557
Main Author Bell, Joyce M.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.10.2022
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Activism
Black nationalism
Black people
Black Power movement
Black white relations
Civil rights movements
Courts
Hegemony
Law
Mobilization
Power
Race
Resistance
Social activism
Social change
Social movements
race and law
social movements
legal mobilization
Black power
White space
National Conference of Black Lawyers
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Summary:Scholars in many disciplines have examined how social movements use the law to create social change. While the study of the law and social movements has largely relied on studies of the US civil rights movement to develop theoretical tools for understanding how movements target the state to create legal changes, none of these studies have examined the legal strategy of the Black Power movement. This article draws on data from a larger project on Black Power law and the National Conference of Black Lawyers to develop the idea of the courtroom as contested space and construct a concept of courtroom resistance. I argue that the courtroom, operating as hegemonic white space, was viewed as a site of contestation by Black Power activists who found creative ways to challenge the legal, ideological, and physical “space” of the courtroom. These conceptual tools open an important avenue for researchers interested in examining the relationship between social movements and the law and how race operates in the courts.
ISSN:0002-7642
1552-3381
DOI:10.1177/00027642211066028