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Week of September 2: Reading
Week of September 8: Zoom Discussion

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Week of September 14:  Reading

Week of September 21:  Zoom discussion

Week of September 28: Paper Due (Black Civil Rights)

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Week of October 5:  Reading

Week of October 13:  Zoom Discussion

Week of October 19:  Paper Due (LGBTQ+ rights)

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Week of October 26:  Reading

Week of November 2:  Zoom Discussion

Week of November 9:   Paper Due (Women, Sex Discrimination, and Equality)

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Week of November 16:  Reading

Week of November 23:  Zoom Discussion

Week of November 30:  Paper Due  (Disabilities and Rights)

*Due December 7th

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BOOK:  Susan Ware. Title IX;  A Brief History with Documents.  Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2007; reissued 2014.

PODCAST:  She's History

TV MINISERIES:  Mrs. America

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Ep1: Who Is Phyllis Schlafly? A conversation with historian Marjorie Spruill. by She's History Podcast

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*Disclaimer, you do not need to watch the Mrs. America limited series to enjoy the history conversation in this podcast. However, the 1st episode of the series is a good companion piece for this podcast episode. 

In this episode, Laura interviews Marjorie Spruill, historian and author of the book "Divided We Stand" about who Phyllis Schalfly is and why she is such an important historical figure. 

They talk about how Phyllis is portrayed in the first episode of the FX limited series “Mrs. America” created by Dahvi Waller and currently airing on Hulu. 

Marjorie talks in depth about Phyllis Schlafly and how Phyllis' actions to stop the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s have resulted in the political divide of America today. Marjorie talks about what the show gets right, what it doesn't, and other fun stories about this time in history.

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Watch Mrs. America Streaming Online | Hulu (Free Trial)

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Mrs. America tells the story of the movement to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), and the unexpected backlash led by a conservative woman named Phyllis Schlafly, aka "the sweetheart of the silent majority."

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Michael Waldman, Barry Friedman, Helen Hershkoff, and Kenji Yoshina, &quot;How Does
Legal Change Happen? Perspectives from the Academy," Brennan Center Report, 143-
155.

PODCAST: This Land.

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Obergefell v. Hodges

BOOK:  Love Wins: The Lovers and Lawyers Who Fought the Landmark Case for Marriage Equality

How to Survive a Plague (excerpt)

NPR:  How to Demand a Medical Breakthrough:  Lessons from the AIDS fight

John F. Kowal, "The Improbably Victory of Marriage Equality," Brennan Center Report, 25-44.

MOVIE:  ???  The Times of Harvey Milk (1984).

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The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law was founded 20 years ago as a living memorial to the values and vision of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr.

For two decades, we have fought to reform and revitalize our nation's systems of democracy and justice, forging a distinct model - part think tank, part legal advocacy group, part communications hub - to spur lasting social change.

In Legal Change: Lessons From America's Social Movement s, the Brennan Center asked a series of thought leaders and social justice advocates - from the fields of philanthropy, academia, organizing, and more - to share their experiences fighting for legal change in this country. We posed the questions: Is it necessary to first win in the court of public opinion before the court of law? Does litigation prompt public attention? Which creates longer-lasting change - a favorable legal ruling, or winning in the democratic branches? What is the role of backlash? What if the public is against your position?

With case studies ranging from the victorious fight for marriage equality to partisan wrangling over the right to vote, reproductive freedom, the environment, and the death penalty, Legal Change grapples with those questions and shares remarkable accounts from decades of legal advocacy in America.
Read the Introduction Download the PDF View on Scribd Introduction
The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law was founded 20 years ago as a living memorial to the values of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. Known for his expansive vision of the Constitution as a driver of social change and his belief in the transformative power of law, Justice Brennan inspired many reformers moved by the enduring American values of democracy, justice, freedom, and equality.

At the Brennan Center today, we seek to reform and revitalize today's institutions in the light of those enduring values. We focus on the systems of democracy and justice - the way our nation makes the decisions that most affect ordinary people. We believe those systems are badly in need of repair.

We have forged a distinct model to help spur that change. It is based on the belief that lasting social change comes from the creation of smart policy innovation driven by a motivated public. In contrast to an earlier generation of public interest lawyers, who might have begun by filing a lawsuit to address an injustice, we believe that it is necessary to win in the court of public opinion and to win in a court of law. We have built what we regard as a new model organization: part think tank, part legal advocacy organization, and part communications hub.

***

We put this model into action most visibly in the fight to protect the vote. In 2011, 19 states passed 27 new measures to make it harder to vote - the most since the Jim Crow era. Minorities, students, and the poor were hardest hit. These sudden shifts drew little sustained attention. In October 2011, we released Voting Law Changes in 2012, which rigorously reported that 5 million citizens could find it harder or impossible to vote. It was the lead story in The New York Times. And it fostered a fierce public debate. The Justice Department joined the fight. Together with allies, we worked to shift the terms of public debate. So that when the Center and other voting rights groups went to court the next year, every single one of the worst new laws was blocked, blunted, postponed, or repealed. These rulings came from Republican and Democratic judges, state and federal. It was a tremendous victory for voters, and democracy.

Today we are engaged in a similar drive to move the law across our issues. We are helping lead a decades-long drive to overturn Citizens United and other misguided Supreme Court decisions that have given us a dystopian campaign finance system. We are pushing our signature proposal for universal, automatic voter registration - a breakthrough reform passed most recently by California's legislature. We are working to harness the tools of economics and the credible voices of law enforcement to end mass incarceration. And we are working to protect constitutional values as the nation enters the 15th year of its fight against terrorism.

In all this, we take our cue from Abraham Lincoln's admonition at another time of constitutional debate: "Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed. Consequently he who moulds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions. He makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to be executed."

***

As we proudly mark the Brennan Center's 20th anniversary, we thought it a good time to dig deeper into the lessons learned from fights in which we have played a part, and from other social movements, too. Some have remarkable examples of success. The victorious fight for marriage equality is the most obvious stunning illustration. The path forged by gun rights activists to change the Supreme Court's interpretation of the Second Amendment is another. Deep partisan wrangling over the right to vote, reproductive freedom, the environment, and the death penalty has caused these issues to be among the most divisive of our time. Conversely, for criminal justice reform efforts, transpartisan alliances are driving momentum for change.

We are honored and grateful that so many thought leaders representing these and other issues - as well as perspectives from philanthropy, academia, and organizing - are part of this publication.

To each of the contributors, we asked:

Is it necessary to first win in the court of public opinion before the court of law? Or, conversely, does litigation prompt or direct public attention? What are the risks and benefits of court rulings that are ahead of public opinion?

Which has a better, longer lasting chance - a favorable legal ruling or winning in the democratic branches? Is the goal legal change ... or change?

What to do when the thing you care about is the thing you cannot say out loud? Or when the public is against you? How to grapple when the issue is divisive racially or in partisan terms, but strategy suggests reaching a broader majoritarian audience?

Ultimately, we at the Brennan Center believe the institutions of American democracy themselves must be the subject of our energy and efforts. Those institutions are badly corroded. Voter turnout in 2014 plunged to its lowest level in seven decades. Government is paralyzed, polarized, overwhelmed by the new tide of dark money loosed by the Supreme Court's rulings in Citizens United and other cases.

The kind of sweeping reform of the institutions by which decisions get made requires deep, sustained, and at times jarring rethinking. The ramifications go well beyond any one set of issues. Those who care most about the social movements covered in this volume will find it increasingly challenging to hold ground or win victories so long as the political and justice systems tilt ever more sharply toward an ideological extreme.

And the kind of institutional reform needed to win will not come from a lawsuit, but rather an upsurge of citizen creativity, innovation, and engagement.

Our deepest thanks to the talented staff and scholars who do this work, especially our colleagues at the Brennan Center; the funders and donors for their invaluable support and for making this work possible; and the allied organizations from myriad fields who have given us the benefit of their wisdom and strategic insight in this volume. We look forward to your partnership as we fight the good fight in the months and years to come.

Michael Waldman
President
Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law
Legal Change: Lessons From America's Social Movements

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Legal Change: Lessons from America's Social Movements

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The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law was founded 20 years ago as a living memorial to the values and vision of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr.

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Civil Rights Act of 1965

Teaching Tolerance:  The Color of Law lesson plans:  Creating Racially Segregated Communities; Winners and Losers in the Job Market; and Developing the White Middle Class.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Shelby County v. Holder (2013)

BOOK:  Jeanne Theoharis, A More Beautiful and Terrible History.

Nicole M. Austin-Hillery, "Does the Civil Rights Model Still Work?" Brennan Center Report, 107-115.

MOVIE:  13th

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This HBO documentary follows Bryan Stevenson and EJI's struggle to create greater fairness in the criminal justice system.

Buy the DVD or stream anytime

About the Film

True Justice: Bryan Stevenson's Fight for Equality follows 30 years of EJI's work on behalf of the poor, the incarcerated, and the condemned. The film won the National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications's 26th annual Vision Award and has been nominated for a Peabody Award.

Told primarily in his own words, True Justice shares Bryan Stevenson's experience with a criminal justice system that "treats you better if you're rich and guilty than if you're poor and innocent." The burden of facing this system is explored in candid interviews with associates, close family members, and clients.

This feature documentary focuses on Bryan Stevenson's life and career-particularly his indictment of the U.S. criminal justice system for its role in codifying modern systemic racism-and tracks the intertwined histories of slavery, lynching, segregation and mass incarceration. Highlighting watershed moments involving cases and clients, True Justice offers a rare glimpse into the human struggle that is required when the poor and people of color are wrongly condemned or unfairly sentenced, and explores the personal toll it takes.

The film chronicles EJI's work in Alabama as well as the early influences that drove Bryan Stevenson to become an advocate for the poor and the incarcerated. As a young lawyer in the 1980s, he witnessed firsthand how courts unfairly applied the death penalty based on race and how the Supreme Court ultimately declared that racial bias in the administration of the death penalty was "inevitable."

Tracing the trajectory of the Court since the 1857 Dred Scott decision, which ruled that African Americans are not citizens, True Justice shows how the Court has long sanctioned inequality, oppression, and violence. Illuminating the power of memory in cultural change, the film instills hope for a brighter American future.

The film also documents the monumental opening of EJI's Legacy Museum and its National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which is dedicated to the more than 4,400 African American victims of lynching. These sites are part of EJI's effort to engage the nation in a new era of truth and justice. As part of the campaign, EJI is working with communities to recognize lynching victims by collecting soil from lynching sites and erecting historical markers.

True Justice: Bryan Stevenson's Fight for Equality reveals a history that can't be forgotten in the pursuit of genuine justice.

Behind the Camera

Six-time Emmy-winner Peter Kunhardt (HBO's Emmy-winning Jim: The James Foley Story) executive produces and directs; Emmy-winners Teddy Kunhardt and George Kunhardt produce and direct.

Kunhardt Films's HBO credits include the Emmy-winning Jim: The James Foley Story, the Emmy-winning Teddy: In His Own Words, the Emmy-nominated Nixon by Nixon: In His Own Words, the Emmy-nominated Gloria: In Her Own Words, The Newspaperman: The Life and Times of Ben Bradlee, Becoming Warren Buffett, King in the Wilderness and John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls.

True Justice: Bryan Stevenson's Fight for Equality is a co-production of HBO and Kunhardt Films; produced and directed by Peter Kunhardt, George Kunhardt and Teddy Kunhardt; executive produced by Trey Ellis and Peter Kunhardt; edited and produced by Maya Mumma, ACE. For HBO: executive produced by Jacqueline Glover, Nancy Abraham and Lisa Heller.

Host a Screening

You can share the feature length version of True Justice by hosting a community screening. Please contact Emily Keating for licensing and permission information: [email protected] . Educator resources that accompany the film, including an Engagement Guide, can be found here.

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"True Justice" Documentary: Bryan Stevenson's Fight for Equality

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This HBO documentary follows Bryan Stevenson and EJI's struggle to create greater fairness in the criminal justice system. Buy the DVD or stream anytime True Justice: Bryan Stevenson's Fight for Equality follows 30 years of EJI's work on behalf of the poor, the incarcerated, and the condemned.

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BOOK:  Enabling Acts: The Hidden Story of How the Americans with Disabilities Act Gave the Largest US Minority Its Rights

MOVIE:  Crip Camp:  A Disability Revolution

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CRIP CAMP: A DISABILITY REVOLUTION | Official Trailer | Netflix | Documentary

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This month marks the 30th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act, which is considered to be the most important civil rights act since the 1960s. This bonus episode of Up First is brought to you by NPR's history podcast Throughline. Hosts Ramtin Arablouei and Rund Abdellfatah look back at the making of this movement, the history of how disability came to be seen as a civil rights issue, and what the disability community is still fighting for 30 years later.

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This month marks the 30th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act, which is considered to be the most important civil rights act since the 1960s. This bonus episode of Up First is brought to you by NPR's history podcast Throughline.

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December 14th:  Final Project Due

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Synthesis of 4 prior papers with an introduction and explanatory material to tie them all together