Social Movements and the Law

"Historians of social movements will often caution readers about attempting to understand any period of significant protest or collective action without understanding other parallel movements. This is true of current social movements like Black Lives Matter and #MeToo. The contributors to this work ask us all, living as we are in a time of renewed attention to race and gender, to consider the importance of each by examining their differences and commonalities. The style of this book is what is needed in this moment when debate and hard conversations seem impossible even in university settings. Through scholarly dialogue, these writers offer a road map for engaging in the critical conversations that move us, the law, and these movements toward real justice."—Melynda Price, Professor of Women's and Gender Studies and Director of the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, University of Michigan

"This volume is essential reading for anyone interested in the compelling force of narrative in advancing social movements for legal reform. It brilliantly shows how the realities of everyday injustices as explored in the Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements highlight why race and gender justice are integral to the project of fostering a more equitable society."—Martha Albertson Fineman, Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Law and Founding Director of the Feminism and Legal Theory Project and the Vulnerability and the Human Condition Initiative, Emory University

"Forget cul-de-sacs and intersections. This book offers perspectives on two of the most important social justice movements of our time with coverage like that of a traffic helicopter surveying the most complex roundabout imaginable—at rush hour. Both movements seek to rectify wrongs linked to race, gender, and class. Both have attracted activists, supporters, and opponents. The needs, possibilities, and limitations of each have found expression in law, politics, and culture, areas covered by the book's accessible dialogue format. This is an important, grounded assessment of where social movements stand at this critical time for our democracy."—Regina Austin, William A. Schnader Professor of Law, Emerita, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School