In 1950s America, it was remarkably easy for police to arrest almost anyone for almost any reason. The criminal justice system-and especially the age-old law of vagrancy-served not only to maintain safety and order but also to enforce conventional standards of morality and propriety. A person could be arrested for sporting a beard, making a speech, or working too little. Yet by the end of the 1960s, vagrancy laws were discredited and American society was fundamentally transformed. What hap...

Tracing the material and intellectual development of one of the nation’s leading law schoolsOver two centuries, UVA Law evolved from a regional, segregated law school into a nationally recognized leader in legal education. As this collection highlights, its changing curriculum—always in conversation with broader historical, cultural, and social forces—proved crucial to this profound transformation. Initially shaped by white Southern perspectives on race, gender, an...

Listen to a short interview with Risa GoluboffHost: Chris Gondek | Producer: Heron & CraneIn this groundbreaking book, Risa L. Goluboff offers a provocative new account of the history of American civil rights law. The Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education has long dominated that history. Since 1954, generations of judges, lawyers, and ordinary people have viewed civil rights as a project of breaking down formal legal barriers to integration, especially in...