The birth of American law—often noted as Black Letter Law—is often heralded as the birth of the nation. However, before the nation, there were Black men and women midwifing and making way for its existence; regardless of their individual or collective desires. This course seeks to analyze the growth of American jurisprudence as a process made legible through the sacrifice and sacrificing of Black people. Through close readings—and the employment of critical race theory and supplemental texts—we will analyze cases, policies, laws and other documents that speak to the interplay between race, power and law. We will also analyze historical and cultural moments (the backdrops) surrounding them as ways to understand what Toni Morrison has called "Unspeakable Things Spoken." Here, we trace the Black in "Black Letter Law" to uncover the ways Black being has been both the ink and ghosts of American jurisprudence. That is to say, we will be considering how Black being operates as a core concern of American jurisprudence, while often being absent from the text. In this course, students are encouraged to engage the holdings of the case—alongside the interventions of Black scholars of the day, and of the present—from the lens of critical race studies. This course encourages employment of multiple registers of knowledge inclusive of the spiritual, legal, emotional, cultural and creative. Grading: Letter Credits: Variable Offered: Irregularly
