"Penningroth's conclusions emerge from an epic research agenda.... Before the Movement presents an original and provocative account of how civil law was experienced by Black citizens and how their 'legal lives' changed over time . . . [an] ambitious, stimulating, and provocative book." ―Eric Foner, New York Review of Books Winner of the Beveridge Award, American Historical Association Winner of the Littleton-Griswold Prize, American Historical Association Finalist for the Cundill History Prize Winner of the Order of the Coif Book Award Winner of the James Willard Hurst Prize, Law and Society Association Winner of the John Philip Reid Award, American Society for Legal History Winner of the Charles Sydnor Award, Southern Historical Association Winner of the Merle Curti Social History Award, Organization of American Historians Winner of the Ellis W. Hawley Prize, Organization of American Historians Winner of the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award Winner of the Scribes Book Award Winner of the David J. Langum, Sr. Prize in American Legal History Shortlisted for the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award, Phi Beta Kappa Shortlisted for the Stone Book Award, Museum of African American History Shortlisted for the Mark Lynton History Prize, Columbia Journalism School 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.” 42 illustrations "[A] cogently subversive book. . . . Mr. Penningroth’s powerful thesis may seem strikingly counterintuitive, but his detailed exposition is convincing, drawing on the prior work of dozens of scholars who have explored smaller aspects of the vast canvas Mr. Penningroth seeks to paint." ― David J. Garrow, Wall Street Journal "[A] deeply researched and counterintuitive history of how ordinary Black Americans used law in their everyday lives from the last decades of slavery to the 1970s. Penningroth reframes the conventional story of civil rights . . . [he] makes expert use of underutilized sources, including deed books, civil and criminal cases, and corporate registries stored in the basements and backrooms of county courthouses. Before the Movement is at its best when it gives readers a glimpse of Penningroth’s historical detective work, searching clothbound docket books and neat rows of gray file boxes . . . Penningroth’s tenacious focus on the ordinary is a rejoinder to ongoing efforts to limit African American history. As he concludes, ‘The basic premise of this book is that Black people’s lives are worth studying in themselves.'" ― Matthew F. Delmont, Washington Post "Penningroth's conclusions emerge from an epic research agenda. . .. Before the Movement presents an original and provocative account of how civil law was experienced by Black citizens and how their 'legal l