Before the Movement

"Penningroth's conclusions emerge from an epic research agenda.... Before the Movement presents an original and provocative account of how civil law was experienced by Black citizens and how their 'legal lives' changed over time . . . [an] ambitious, stimulating, and provocative book." -Eric Foner, New York Review of Books

Winner of the Beveridge Award, American Historical Association
Winner of the Littleton-Griswold Prize, American Historical Association
Finalist for the Cundill History Prize
Winner of the Order of the Coif Book Award
Winner of the James Willard Hurst Prize, Law and Society Association
Winner of the John Philip Reid Award, American Society for Legal History
Winner of the Charles Sydnor Award, Southern Historical Association
Winner of the Merle Curti Social History Award, Organization of American Historians
Winner of the Ellis W. Hawley Prize, Organization of American Historians
Winner of the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award
Winner of the Scribes Book Award
Winner of the David J. Langum, Sr. Prize in American Legal History
Shortlisted for the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award, Phi Beta Kappa
Shortlisted for the Stone Book Award, Museum of African American History
Shortlisted for the Mark Lynton History Prize, Columbia Journalism School

A prize-winning scholar draws on astonishing new research to demonstrate how Black people used the law to their advantage long before the Civil Rights Movement.