Critical Race Theory Resources at YLS
Critical Race Theory is a movement and series of writings that address issues of racial discrimination, institutional racism, unequal treatment in employment and housing, and more. CRT scholars debate about the law’s ability to resolve social inequality (i.e., via formal equality). While the seeds of the movement are evident in court decisions such as Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), the scholarship of CRT took root in articles such as “Serving Two Masters: Integration Ideals and Client Interests in School Desegregation Litigation,” authored by Derrick Bell and published by the Yale Law Review in 1976. Bell’s essay and other foundational writings are collected in Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings that Formed the Movement (YLS call # KF4755.A75C7 1995).
If you have time to (re)read one CRT essay, consider Kimberlé Crenshaw’s “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color.” It is a complex article that resists reduction. In it, professor Crenshaw addresses one of the thorniest challenges of CRT scholarship and praxis: defining the plaintiffs/targets/recipients/intended beneficiaries of antidiscrimination law. “Mapping the Margins” adeptly unpacks the identity issues at the heart of CRT debates, and the problems inherent in identifying individuals via their complex social positions. It exposes the multi-faceted nature of discrimination as concomitantly racialized, gendered, aged, geographical, temporal, etc. Professor Crenshaw’s metaphor of the “intersections” at which we live is a touchstone for thinking about race in the United States and beyond. To explore “intersectionality” in a global context, see Mahmood Mamdani’s When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda (YLS call# DT450.435.M35 2001). It is a kaleidoscopic account of post-colonial racialized violence presented via a case study of modern Rwanda. Professor Mamdani criticizes United States foreign policy in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide, arguing that U.S. policymakers’ binary constructions of good and evil prevented them from serving a productive role in peacebuilding. When Victims Become Killers invites us to consider whether the moral fallacies that contribute to racism domestically also inform our international relations.
Beyond those texts, the YLS library maintains an extensive collection of Critical Race Theory volumes, as well as holdings in African American studies, feminist jurisprudence, human rights, queer theory, and more. The following 135 books are but a sampling of what you’ll find:
Amar, Akhil Reed. America’s Unwritten Constitution: The Precedents and Principles We Live By. YLS call# KF4541.A875 2012
Anderson, Margaret & Collins, Patricia Hill (eds.). Race, Class, and Gender: An Anthology. YLS call#: HN59.2.R32 1998
Arsanjani, Mahnoush et al. Looking to the Future: Essays on International Law in Honor of W. Michael Reisman. YLS call# Z3410.L66 2011
Asante, Molefi Kete & Mazama, Ama (eds.). Encyclopedia of Black Studies. YLS call# E185.E554 2005 oversize
Ayres, Ian & Brown, Jennifer Gerarda. Straightforward: How to Mobilize Heterosexual Support for Gay Rights. YLS call# HQ76.8.U5A97 2005
Balkin, Jack (ed.). What Brown v. Board of Education Should Have Said: The Nation’s Top Legal Experts Rewrite America’s Landmark Civil Rights Decision. YLS call#: KF228.B76W48 2001
Bell, Derrick. And We are Not Saved: The Elusive Quest for Racial Justice. YLS call# KF4757.B349 1989
-----. Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism. YLS call# E185.615.B395 1992
-----. Race, Racism, and American Law (6th ed.). YLS call# KF4757.B35 2008
-----. Silent Covenants: Brown v. Board of Education and the Unfulfilled Hopes for Racial Reform. YLS call# KF4155.B34 2004
Benhabib, Seyla & Post, Robert et al. Another Cosmopolitanism. YLS call# JZ1308.B48 2006
----- & Resnik (eds.). Migrations and Mobilities: Citizenship, Borders, and Gender. YLS call# K3324.M54 2009
Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo. Racism without Racists: Color-blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States. YLS call# E184.A1B597 2006
Bosworth, Mary & Flavin, Jeanne (eds.). Race, Gender, and Punishment: From Colonialism to the War on Terror. YLS call# HV9950.R333 2007
Brooks, Richard & Rose, Carol. Saving the Neighborhood: Racially Restrictive Covenants, Law, and Social Norms. Copies of this 2013 book are on order.
Brooks, Roy, et al. Civil Rights Litigation: Cases and Perspectives. YLS call# KF4748.B76 1995
Brown, David & Webb, Clive. Race in the American South: From Slavery to Civil Rights. YLS call# E185.92.B76X 2007
Brown, Kevin. Race, Law and Education in the Post-Desegregation Era. YLS call# KF4155.B678 2005
Browne-Marshall, Gloria. Race, Law, and American Society: 1607 to Present. YLS call# KF4755.B76X 2007
Butler, Judith. Undoing Gender. YLS call# HQ1075.B89 2004
----- & Scott, Joan (eds.). Feminists Theorize the Political. YLS call# HQ1190.F48 1992
Bynum, Cornelius. A. Philip Randolph and the Struggle for Civil Rights. YLS call# E185.97.R27B97X 2010
Carter, Stephen. The Dissent of the Governed: A Meditation on Law, Religion, and Loyalty. YLS call# JC328.C27 1998
-----. Reflections of an Affirmative Action Baby. HF5549.5.A34C37 1991
Chang, David. The Color of the Land: Race, Nation, and the Politics of Land Ownership in Oklahoma, 1832-1929. YLS call# E99.C9C428X 2010
Chapman, John & Shapiro, Ian (eds.). Democratic Community. YLS call# JC423.D465 1993
Chua, Amy. World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability. HF1359.C524 2003
Collins, Patricia Hill. Fighting Words: Black Women and the Search for Justice. YLS call# E185.86.C5817 1998
Cotran, Eugene & Mallat, Chibli (eds.). The Arab-Israeli Accords: Legal Perspectives. YLS call# KZ4282.A73 1996
Dalton, Harlon. Racial Healing: Confronting the Fear Between Blacks and Whites. YLS call# E185.615.D35 1995
Daugherity, Brian & Bolton, Charles (eds.). With All Deliberate Speed: Implementing Brown v. Board of Education. YLS call# KF4155.W58X 2008
Delgado, Richard & Stefanic, Jean. (eds.). Critical Race Theory: The Cutting Edge (2nd ed.). YLS call# KF4755.C75 2000
Dembour, Marie-Bénédicte & Kelly, Tobias (eds.). Are Human Rights for Migrants?: Critical Reflections on the Status of Irregular Migrants in Europe and the United States. YLS call# K3275.A94X 2011
D’Emilio, John. Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940-1970. YLS call# HQ76.8.U5D45 1983
----- et al. (eds.). Creating Change: Sexuality, Public Policy, and Civil Rights. YLS call# HQ76.8.U5C74 2000
Eisenberg, Ellen. The First to Cry Down Injustice: Western Jews and Japanese Removal During WWII. YLS call# F596.3.J5E57X 2008
Engel, David & McCann, Michael. Fault Lines: Tort Law as Cultural Practice. YLS call# K923.F37X 2009
Eskidge Jr., William, & Spedale, Darren. Gay Marriage: For Better or For Worse?: What We’ve Learned from the Evidence. YLS call# K699.E85 2006
Finkelman, Paul. African Americans and the Law [vol. 1-10]. YLS call# KF4757.R33 1992
Fiss, Owen. The Dictates of Justice: Essays on Law and Human Rights. YLS call# JC585.F47 2011
García, Igancio. White but Not Equal: Mexican Americans, Jury Discrimination, and the Supreme Court. YLS call# KF224.H468G37X 2009
Gates, E. Nathaniel (ed.). Critical Race Theory: The Judicial Isolation of the ‘Racially’ Oppressed. YLS call# KF4733.J83 1997
Gillespie, Andra. The New Black Politician: Cory Booker, Newark, and Post-Racial America. YLS call# F144.N653B664 2012
Goldstein, Eduardo. La Discriminación Racial por Origen Nacional y Etnia en las Relaciones Laborales. YLS call# HD4903.5.U8G65 2008
Grewal, David Singh. Network Power: The Social Dynamics of Globalization. YLS call# JZ1318.G792X 2008
Griffiths, Gareth & Tiffin, Helen (eds.). The Post-Colonial Studies Reader. YLS call# PR9080.P57X 2006
Grimm, Dieter. Die Verfassung und die Politik: Einsprüche in Störfällen. YLS call# KK4455.G75 2001
Gross, Ariela. What Blood Won’t Tell: A History of Race on Trial in America. YLS call# KF4755.G76X 2008
Hansen, Randall & Weil, Patrick. Dual Nationality, Social Rights, and Federal Citizenship in the U.S. and Europe: The Reinvention of Citizenship. YLS call #: K7128.D8H36 2002
Harvey, Jennifer. Whiteness and Morality: Pursuing Racial Justice through Reparations and Sovereignty. YLS call# E184.A1H3528X 2007
Hathaway, Oona, & Koh, Harold Hongju (eds.). Foundations of International Law and Politics [see section IV: Applications: Human Rights]. YLS call# KZ3410.F68 2005
Herr, Stanley & Gostin, Lawrence & Koh, Harold Hongju. The Human Rights of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities: Different but Equal. YLS call# K637.H86 2003
Higginbotham, F. Michael. Race Law: Cases, Commentary, and Questions. YLS call# KF4755.A7H54 2010
Hill, Mike (ed.). Whiteness: A Critical Reader. YLS call# E184.A1W398 1997
Huo, Yuen & Tyler, Tom. How Different Ethnic Groups React to Legal Authority. YLS call# KFC950.H86 2000
Irons, Jenny. Reconstituting Whiteness: The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission. YLS call# F350.A1I76X 2010
Jacobson, Matthew. Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race. YLS call# E184.E95J33 1998
Johnson, Kevin (ed.). Mixed Race America and the Law: A Reader. YLS call# KF4755.M59 2003
Jones, Cecily. Engendering Whiteness: White Women and Colonialism in Barbados and North Carolina, 1627-1865. YLS call# HQ1233.J73 2007
Kahn, Paul. The Cultural Study of Law: Reconstructing Legal Scholarship. YLS call# KF382.K33 1999
-----. Out of Eden: Adam and Eve and the Problem of Evil. YLS call# BJ1401.K34 2007
Kennedy, Randall. The Persistence of the Color Line: Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency. YLS call# E185.615.K376X 2011
-----. Race, Crime, and the Law. YLS call# KF9223.K43 1997
Kofler, Georg & Maduro, Miguel Poiares, et al. (eds.). Human Rights and Taxation in Europe and the World. YLS call# K4466.H86 2011
Koh, Harold Hongju & Slye, Ronald. Deliberative Democracy and Human Rights. YLS call# JC423.D3894 1999
Krikorian, Gaëlle, & Kapczynski, Amy (eds.). Access to Knowledge in the Age of Intellectual Property. YLS call# K1401.A929X 2010
Krysan, Maria & Lewis, Amanda. The Changing Terrain of Race and Ethnicity. YLS call# E184.A1C444 2004
Lawrence, Charles & Matsuda, Mari. We Won’t Go Back: Making the Case for Affirmative Action. HF5549.5.A34L38 1997
Lee, Francis Graham. Equal Protection: Rights and Liberties under the Law. YLS call# KF4755.L438 2003
Legomsky, Stephen & Rodríguez, Cristina. Immigration and Refugee Law and Policy. YLS call# KF4818.L43 2009
López, Ian Haney (ed.). Race, Law and Society. YLS call# KF4755.R35X 2007
Lukens, Patrick. A Quiet Victory for Latino Rights: FDR and the Controversy over Whiteness. YLS call# E184.S75L85X 2012
Mallampalli, Chandra. Race, Religion, and Law in Colonial India: Trials of an Interracial Family. YLS call# KNS46.A27M35X 2011
Marable, Manning et al. The New Black History: Revisiting the Second Reconstruction. YLS call# E185.615.N37 2011
----- et al. (eds.). Racializing Justice, Disenfranchising Lives: The Racism, Criminal Justice, and Law Reader. YLS call# HV9950.R34X 2007
----- et al. (eds.). Seeking Higher Ground: The Hurricane Katrina Crisis, Race, and Public Policy Reader. YLS call# HV6362005.N4S44X 2008
Martin, Gordon. Count Them One by One: Black Mississippians Fighting for the Right to Vote. YLS call# JK1929.M7M37 2010
Meares, Tracey, & Kahan, Dan. Urgent Times: Policing and Rights in Inner-City Communities. YLS call# HV7936.C83M42 1999
Mitchell, Koritha. Living with Lynching: African American Lynching Plays, Performance, and Citizenship, 1890-1930. YLS call# PS338.N4M455X 2011
Mohnhaupt, Begriffs, & Grimm, Dieter. Verfassung: Zur Geschichte des Begriffs von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart: Zwei Studien. YLS call# K3161.M64 2002
Moloney, Deirdre. National Insecurities: Immigrants and U.S. Deportation Policy since 1882. YLS call# JV6483.M645X 2012
Moran, Peter. Race, Law, and the Desegregation of the Public Schools. YLS call# KFX1591.S34M67 2005
Moran, Rachel & Carbado, Devon. Race Law Stories. YLS call# KF4755 .R355 2008
Moyn, Samuel. The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History. YLS call# JC571.M86 2010
Myers, Verna. Moving Diversity Forward: How to Go From Well-Meaning to Well-Doing. YLS call# KF300.M94 2011
Olivas, Michael. (ed.). ‘Colored Men’ and ‘Hombres Aquí’: Hernández v. Texas and the Emergence of Mexican American Lawyering. YLS call# KF224.H468C65 2006
-----. No Undocumented Child Left Behind: Plyer v. Doe and the Education of Undocumented Schoolchildren. YLS call# KF4217.I46O45X 2012
Parks, Gregory, et al. (eds.). Critical Race Realism: Intersections of Psychology, Race, and Law. YLS call# KF4755.C749X 2008
Pencak, William & Richter, Daniel (eds.). Friends and Enemies in Penn’s Woods: Indians, Colonists, and the Racial Construction of Pennsylvania. YLS call# F152.F865 2004
Perea, Juan et al. Race and Races: Cases and Resources for a Diverse America. YLS call# KF4755.A7R33 2007
Phelan, Shane. Identity Politics: Lesbian Feminism and the Limits of Community. YLS call# HQ75.5.P48 1989
-----. Sexual Strangers: Gays, Lesbians, and Dilemmas of Citizenship. YLS call# HQ76.8.U5P48 2001
Pierce, Jennifer. Racing for Innocence: Whiteness, Gender, and the Backlash against Affirmative Action. YLS call# HF5549.5.A34P54X 2012
Pogge, Thomas. World Poverty and Human Rights: Cosmopolitan Responsibilities and Reforms. YLS call# JC571.P577 2008
----- & Moellendorf, Darrel. Global Responsibilities/Global Justice: Seminal Essays. YLS call# JC578.P62X 2008
Post, Robert & Hesse, Carla (eds.). Human Rights in Political Transitions: Gettysburg to Bosnia. YLS call# JC571.H769526 1999
----- & Rogin, Michael (eds.). Race and Representation: Affirmative Action. YLS call# HF5549.5.A34R32 1996
----- & Rosenblum, Nancy. Civil Society and Government. YLS call# JC336.C5667 2002
----- & Siegel, Reva, et al. Prejudicial Appearances: The Logic of American Antidiscrimination Law. YLS call# KF4755.P67 2001
Rana, Aziz. The Two Faces of American Freedom. YLS call# E183.R27 2010
Reisman, W. Michael. The Quest for World Order and Human Dignity in the Twenty-First Century: Constitutive Process and Individual Commitment.
Resnik, Judith, & Curtis, Dennis. Representing Justice: Invention, Controversy, and Rights in City-States and Democratic Courtrooms. YLS call# N8219.L3R47 2011 oversize
Rohrleitner, Marion & Ryan, Sarah (eds.). Dialogues across Diasporas: Women Writers, Scholars, and Activists of Africana and Latina Descent in Conversation. Copies of this 2013 book are on order.
Rose-Ackerman, Susan. Rethinking the Progressive Agenda: The Reform of the American Regulatory State [see chapter 7, “Social Services: Proxy Shopping”]. YLS call# KF5402.R665 1992
Rubenfeld, Jed. Revolution by Judiciary: The Structure of American Constitutional Law. YLS call# KF4550.R83 2005
Rubenstein, Michael. Discrimination: A Guide to the Relevant Case Law. YLS call# KD3102.A59R83 2007 oversize
Ruger, Jennifer Prah. Health and Social Justice. YLS call# RA418.R84 2010
Said, Edward & Viswanathan, Gauri. Power, Politics, and Culture: Interviews with Edward W. Said. YLS call# CB18.S25A3 2001
Sarat, Austin (ed.). Race, Law, and Culture: Reflections on Brown v. Board of Education. YLS call# KF4155.A2R33 1997
Schuck, Peter. Diversity in America: Keeping Government at a Safe Distance. YLS call# E184.A1S37 2003
----- & Wilson, James (eds.). Understanding America: The Anatomy of an Exceptional Nation. YLS call# E169.12.U479 2007
SenGupta, Gunja. From Slavery to Poverty: The Racial Origins of Welfare in New York, 1840-1918. YLS call# HV99.N59S43X 2009
Shapiro, Ian & Kymlicka, Will. Ethnicity and Group Rights.
Sharfstein, Daniel. The Invisible Line: Three American Families and the Secret Journey from Black to White. YLS call# E184.A1S5724 2011
Siegel, Reva & Greenhouse, Linda. Before Roe v. Wade: Voices that Shaped the Abortion Debate before the Supreme Court’s Ruling.
Silber, Norman. With All Deliberate Speed: The Life of Philip Elman. YLS call# KF373.E455A3 2004
Sklar, Kathryn & Stewart, James (eds.). Women’s Rights and Transatlantic Antislavery in the Era of Emancipation. YLS call# E449.W895X 2007
Southern Education Reporting Service & Shoemaker, Don. With All Deliberate Speed: Segregation-Desegration in Southern Schools. YLS call# LB3062.S6
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty & Landry, Donna & MacLean, Gerald. The Spivak Reader: Selected Works of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. YLS # HM101.S7733 1996
Tuitt, Patricia. Race, Law, Resistance. YLS call# K3242.T85 2004
Tyler, Tom. Social Justice in a Diverse Society. YLS call# HM216.S553 1997
-----. & Meares, Tracey, et al. (eds). Legitimacy and Criminal Justice: International Perspectives. YLS call# HV7419.L45X 2007
Webb, Clive. Fight Against Fear: Southern Jews and Black Civil Rights. YLS call# E184.36.A34W43 2001
-----. Massive Resistance: Southern Opposition to the Second Reconstruction. YLS call# E185.61.M374 2005
Weil, Patrick. How to be French: Nationality in the Making Since 1789. YLS call# KJV4184.W45X 2008
Weiler-Harwell, Nina. Discrimination Against Atheists: A New Legal Hierarchy among Religious Beliefs. YLS call# KF4868.A84W45X 2011
Whitman, James. Harsh Justice: Criminal Punishment and the Widening Divide between America and Europe. YLS call# K5103.W48 2003
Wiener, Richard et al. Social Consciousness in Legal Decision Making: Psychological Perspectives. YLS call# K376.S58 2007
Wildhaber, Luzius. The European Court of Human Rights, 1998-2006: History, Achievements, Reform. YLS call# KJC5138.W55 2006
Williams, Patricia. The Alchemy of Race and Rights. YLS call# KF4757.W53 1991
-----. Seeing a Color-Blind Future: The Paradox of Race. YLS call# E185.615.W493 1998
Winter, Ralph & Fiss, Owen et al. Affirmative Action: The Answer to Discrimination? An AEI Round Table held on May 28, 1975. YLS call# JC578.A44
Witt, John. Lincoln’s Code: The Laws of War in American History. YLS call# KF7210.W58 2012
-----. Patriots and Cosmopolitans: Hidden Histories of American Law [see section 2: “Exits”]. YLS call# KF353.W58X 2007
Young, Iris. Responsibility for Justice. YLS call# BJ1451.Y68X 2011
Coming Soon!
Ackerman, Bruce. We the People, Vol. 3: The Civil Rights Revolution, Harvard University Press.
Image: Romare Howard Bearden (1911-1988), Morning of Red Bird. Courtesy of Yale Image Collection.
