Berry, Mary Frances

Examines state appellate civil and criminal court cases over the course of two centuries to show the impact of racial, class, and gender stereotyping on the American legal system.

Presents the life of Callie House, a former slave and mother of five who still had time to demand ex-slave reparations. Focuses on how the Justice Department curtailed the activities of the Callie House organizers, and gravely violated her constitutional rights. She was also accused of mail fraud and was denied support by African-American newspapers.

Mary Frances Berry, the former chairperson for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, details a history of the commission from its founding in 1957 through the twenty-first century, and describes her views on how the commission should be reconfigured.

Examines the life of Callie House, a woman who was born into slavery in 1861 and later became a laundress in Nashville, focusing on her demand that the U.S. government pay pensions to ex-slaves for centuries of unpaid labor, and discussing the efforts of the Justice Department to stop House and her followers.

Surveys African-American history thematically, exploring the family and church, sex and racism, politics, education, criminal justice and nationalism.