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The central focus of this article is on the role played in these episodes by the U.S. Department of Justice, the primary federal agency entrusted with law enforcement duties and powers. In particular, the role of the attorney general as the department's titular head and as the personification of federal enforcement of civil rights and liberties provides this article with its analytic framework. A recent press commentary put this crucial cabinet post in perspective: "More than anyone but the President himself, it is the Attorney General who sets the moral tone of an Administration, symbolizing its commitment or lack of commitment to impartial justice." The four men who served Franklin Roosevelt in this post—Homer Cummings, Frank Murphy, Robert Jackson, and Francis Biddle—spanned the spectrum in the "moral tone" that each imposed on the department's approach to civil rights and liberties, from the virtual unconcern shown by Cummings to the passionate moralism and activism with which Murphy invested his office.

"Thirty lashes, well laid on" -- "Dem was hard times, Sho' Nuff" -- "Beings Of an inferior order" -- "Fighting for white supremacy" -- "The foul odors of blacks" -- "Negroes plan to kill all whites" -- "Intimate contact with negro men" -- "I thanked got right there and then" -- "War against the constitution" -- "Two cities : one white, the other black" -- "All blacks are angry" -- "The basic minimal skills" -- Epilogue : "rooting out systemic racism".

The current debate over the causes and possible cures for the persistent white advantage over African Americans in education and income needs a resource that provides both historical and current evidence. In this book, Peter Irons fills this need with the stories of African Americans who challenged their status in acts of resistance, from slavery and Jim Crow segregation to today's Black Lives Matter and other racial justice movements. Irons marshals a wide array of evidence to make a persuasive argument that systemic racism still permeates every major institution in American society.

Frontmatter -- Table of Contents -- PREFACE -- INTRODUCTION: Boys with Their Hair Ablaze -- SECTION ONE: THE LEGAL POLITICIANS OF THE NATIONAL RECOVERY ADMINISTRATION -- CHAPTER ONE: Corporatism and Cartels: The National Industrial Recovery Act -- CHAPTER TWO: The Blue Eagle in Court -- CHAPTER THREE: "Hot Oil" and Hot Tempers: The NIRA Reaches the Supreme Court -- CHAPTER FOUR: The Felling of Belcher and the Search for a Successor -- CHAPTER FIVE: The Schechter Case and the "Horse-and-Buggy" Court -- SECTION TWO: THE LEGAL REFORMERS OF THE AGRICULTURAL ADJUSTMENT ADMINISTRATION -- CHAPTER SIX: The Search for Parity: The Agricultural Adjustment Act -- CHAPTER SEVEN: The Triple A in Court -- CHAPTER EIGHT: King Cotton and the Triple-A Purge -- CHAPTER NINE: Hamilton's Ghost in the Supreme Court -- SECTION THREE: THE LEGAL CRAFTSMEN OF THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD -- CHAPTER TEN: Labor under the Blue Eagle -- CHAPTER ELEVEN: Legal Craftsmen and the Wagner Act -- CHAPTER TWELVE: The NLRB Implements Its Master Plan -- CHAPTER THIRTEEN: The Supreme Court Opens Its Eyes -- CONCLUSION: The Limits of Legal Liberalism -- NOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX