How Long to Read Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights

How Long Does it Take to Read Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights?

It takes the average reader 9 hours and 42 minutes to read Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights by Dylan C. Penningroth

Assuming a reading speed of 250 words per minute. Learn more

Description

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. The familiar story of civil rights goes like this: once, America’s legal system shut Black people out and refused to recognize their rights, their basic human dignity, or even their very lives. When lynch mobs gathered, police and judges often closed their eyes, if they didn’t join in. For Black people, law was a hostile, fearsome power to be avoided whenever possible. Then, starting in the 1940s, a few brave lawyers ventured south, bent on changing the law. Soon, ordinary African Americans, awakened by Supreme Court victories and galvanized by racial justice activists, launched the civil rights movement. In Before the Movement, acclaimed historian Dylan C. Penningroth brilliantly revises the conventional story. Drawing on long-forgotten sources found in the basements of county courthouses across the nation, Penningroth reveals that African Americans, far from being ignorant about law until the middle of the twentieth century, have thought about, talked about, and used it going as far back as even the era of slavery. They dealt constantly with the laws of property, contract, inheritance, marriage and divorce, of associations (like churches and businesses and activist groups), and more. By exercising these “rights of everyday use,” Penningroth demonstrates, they made Black rights seem unremarkable. And in innumerable subtle ways, they helped shape the law itself—the laws all of us live under today. Penningroth’s narrative, which stretches from the last decades of slavery to the 1970s, partly traces the history of his own family. Challenging accepted understandings of Black history framed by relations with white people, he puts Black people at the center of the story—their loves and anger and loneliness, their efforts to stay afloat, their mistakes and embarrassments, their fights, their ideas, their hopes and disappointments, in all their messy humanness. Before the Movement is an account of Black legal lives that looks beyond the Constitution and the criminal justice system to recover a rich, broader vision of Black life—a vision allied with, yet distinct from, “the freedom struggle.”

How long is Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights?

Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights by Dylan C. Penningroth is 567 pages long, and a total of 145,719 words.

This makes it 191% the length of the average book. It also has 178% more words than the average book.

How Long Does it Take to Read Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights Aloud?

The average oral reading speed is 183 words per minute. This means it takes 13 hours and 16 minutes to read Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights aloud.

What Reading Level is Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights?

Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights is suitable for students ages 12 and up.

Note that there may be other factors that effect this rating besides length that are not factored in on this page. This may include things like complex language or sensitive topics not suitable for students of certain ages.

When deciding what to show young students always use your best judgement and consult a professional.

Where Can I Buy Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights?

Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights by Dylan C. Penningroth is sold by several retailers and bookshops. However, Read Time works with Amazon to provide an easier way to purchase books.

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