Shades of Freedom

In Shades of Freedom Judge A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. provides a magisterial account of the interaction between the law and racial oppression in America from colonial times to the present demonstrating how the one agent that should have guaranteed equal treatment before the law--the judicial system--instead played a dominant role in enforcing the inferior position of blacks. The issue of racial inferiority is central to this volume as Judge Higginbotham documents how early white perceptions of black inferiority slowly became codified into law. In Shades of Freedom a noted scholar and celebrated jurist offers a work of magnificent scope insight and passion. Ranging from the earliest colonial times to the present it is a superb work of history--and a mirror to the American soul.