Book Description

In Blacks and the Law, Geraldine R. Segal carefully and completely details the history and current status of black lawyers, judges, law professors, and law students in the United States. Extensive research into all available materials for Philadelphia, supplemented by interviews and questionnaires, results in an unrivaled study of the situation in one city. Her findings are then placed in a national setting by using comparative data from fifteen other American cities. The wealth of data presented here shows the persistence of high degrees of racial exclusion and underrepresentation practiced by the legal profession over many years. Countervailing these findings are success stories of enormously motivated and determined blacks who have overcome great obstacles to attain high positions as lawyers and judges. Within the legal establishment, increasing numbers of whites have dedicated themselves to lowering barriers to black participation. Blacks and the Law brings to light the racial prejudices of the white American legal community as well as its efforts to overcome such biases. It also shows the massive effort black people have made to achieve significant but limited progress toward integration of the legal profession and indicates the amount of work still ahead. This study is therefore of vital interest to all members of the legal profession, students of race relations, social mobility, and the professions, Philadelphians, and others who follow the struggle for racial equality.