Black Rage Confronts the Law. Paul Harris

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       Black Rage Confronts the Law

       CRITICAL AMERICA General Editors: Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic

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      Critical Race Feminism: A Reader EDITED BY ADRIEN KATHERINE WING

      Immigrants Out! The New Nativism and the Anti-Immigrant Impulse in the United States EDITED BY JUAN F. PEREA

      Taxing America EDITED BY KAREN B. BROWN AND MARY LOUISE FELLOWS

      Notes of a Racial Caste Baby: Colorblindness and the End of Affirmative Action BRYAN K. FAIR

      Please Don’t Wish Me a Merry Christmas: A Critical History of the Separation of Church and State STEPHEN M. FELDMAN

      To Be an American: Cultural Pluralism and the Rhetoric of Assimilation BILL ONG HING

      Negrophobia and Reasonable Racism: The Hidden Costs of Being Black in America JODY DAVID ARMOUR

      Black and Brown in America: The Case for Cooperation BILL PIATT

      Black Rage Confronts the Law PAUL HARRIS

       BLACK RAGE CONFRONTS THE LAW

      Paul Harris

      New York University Press New York and London

      Copyright © 1997 by New York University

      All rights reserved

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Harris, Paul, 1943 Feb. 17–

      Black rage confronts the law / Paul Harris.

      p. cm. — (Critical America)

      Includes bibliographical references and index.

      ISBN 0-8147-3527-4 (cl: acid-free paper)

      1. Defense (Criminal procedure)—United States. 2. Afro-

      Americans—Psychology. 3. Racism—United States. 4. United

      States—Race relations. 5. Afro-Americans—Social conditions.

      6. Extenuating circumstances—United States. I. Title.

      II. Series.

      KF9244.5.H37 1997

      345.73′04—dc21 97-2379

       CIP

      New York University Press books are printed on

      acid-free paper, and their binding materials are

      chosen for strength and durability.

      Manufactured in the United States of America

      10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

      To the members of the San Francisco Community Law Collective.

      For sixteen years we built community power, demystified the law,

      dignified our clients, and won more than our share of cases.

       Contents

       Acknowledgments

       Introduction

       1 The Black Rage Defense, 1846: The Trial of William Freeman

       2 The Black Rage Defense, 1971

       3 The Law: Its Myths and Rituals

       4 Black Rage 1971: The Case of James Johnson, Jr.

       5 James Johnson’s Workers’ Compensation Case

       6 Racism, Rage, and Criminal Defenses

       7 To Use or Not to Use the Black Rage Defense

       8 Race, Class, and the Trials of Clarence Darrow

       9 A Survey of Black Rage Cases

       10 Urban War Zones

       11 White Rage—Hate Crimes

       12 White Rage—Do Prisons Cause Crime?

       13 The Cultural Defense and the Trials of Patrick Hooty Croy

       14 “Remake the World”

       Notes

       Index

Acknowledgments

      To my wife, Barbara Newman, for her love, encouragement, good humor, ideas, and editing.

      To my children—Josh, Carmen, and Corey—for keeping me young and strong in spirit.

      To Bernadette Aguilar for keeping her cool in the chaos of typing and retyping the manuscript.

      To my parents, Sydney Harris and Rose Fine;