How the Civil Rights Movement and Litigation Advanced Other Movements for Social Justice

Abstract

Part 4 describes how many of us who cut our teeth on race-based litigation subsequently used the same tools to reform prisons, mental health hospitals, and other public facilities. Part 4 includes chapter 12, “Constitutional Race-Based Litigation and the Friendly Judicial Climate Lead to Other Areas of Constitutional Litigation”; chapter 13, “How the Civil Rights Movement and Litigation Informed Other Movements for Social Justice”; and chapter 14, “Framing the Contemporary Dialogue of Race.” The courts of the time did not shrink from establishing minimal constitutional standards for prisons and hospitals. Wyatt v. Stickney established the national precedent for residential treatment of mental health. The Prison Project brought constitutional standards to Parchman Prison. Race-based litigation also informed later social movements, such as the women’s movement and the movement for LGBT rights. The anthology concludes with two authors’ assessments of where we are now in framing the discussion of race and white supremacy. Barbara Phillips explores the challenges of what we call “diversity.” Larry Menefee explores Jacquelyn Hall Dowd’s thesis concerning the restricted view of the civil rights movement.