The legal cases that birthed the civil rights movement

Departures with Robert Amsterdam

The end of slavery in the United States was an arduously complex process, which beyond simply the issues surrounding cultural and social norms, not to mention the conflicts remaining at the end of the Civil War, the dismantling of established racist institutions began with critical cases going through the courts.

In historian Kate Masur's new book, "Until Justice Be Done: America's First Civil Rights Movement, from the Revolution to Reconstruction," this history is explored with unprecedented detail and archival research, bringing to light the stories of the African American activists and their white allies, often facing mob violence, courageously built a movement to fight these racist laws.

Discussing her book on the podcast with Robert Amsterdam, Masur explores the politically courageous pursuit of the 1866 Civil Rights Act and the Fourteenth Amendment by the Republican Party, and how the movement’s ideals became increasingly mainstream in the 1850s despite a series of rigged court decisions.