Roots of Disorder: Race and Criminal Justice in the American South, 1817-80

by Christopher Waldrep

Every white southerner understoodwhat keeping African Americans "down" meant and what it did not mean. It did not mean going to court; it did not mean relying on the law. It meant vigilante violence and lynching. Looking at Vicksburg, Mississippi, Roots of Disorder traces the origins of these terrible attitudes to the day-to-day operations of local courts. In Vicksburg, white exploitation of black labor through slavery evolved into efforts to use the law todefine blacks' place in society, setting the stage for widespread tolerance of brutal vigilantism. Fed by racism and economics, whites' violence grew in a hothouse of more general hostility toward law and courts.  Roots of Disorder shows how the criminal justice system itself plays a role in shaping the attitudes that encourage vigilantism.

"Delivers what no other study has yet attempted. . . . Waldrep's book is one of the first systematically to use local trial data to explore questions of society and culture." -- Vernon Burton, author of "A Gentleman and an Officer":  A Social and Military History of James B. Griffin's Civil War

296 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Prof. Waldrep became the Jamie and Phyllis Pasker Professor of History at SFSU in August, 2000. Previously professor of history at Eastern Illinois University, he is the author of Night Riders: Defending Community in the Black Patch (1993); Roots of Disorder: Race and Criminal Justice in the American South, 1817-80 (1998); Racial Violence on Trial: A Handbook with Cases, Laws, and Documents (2001); The Many Faces of Judge Lynch (2002); Vicksburg's Long Shadow: The Civil War Legacy of Race and Remembrance (2005); African Americans Confront Lynching: Strategies of Resistance from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Era (2009). His most recent book is Jury Discrimination: The Supreme Court, Public Opinion, and a Grassroots Fight for Racial Equality in Mississippi (2010). The Supreme Court Historical Society announced on June 7, 2010, that its Hughes-Gossett Award for the best journal article went to Professor Christopher Waldrep for his article entitled "Joseph P. Bradley's Journey: The Meaning of Privileges and Immunities." He is also founding and senior editor of H-Law.