2025 Pro Lecture in Legal History with Professor Dylan C. Penningroth

Program Schedule:

• 5:30 PM - Lecture
• 6 :30 PM - Post lecture reception and book signing (Hidden Histories of Black Civil Rights will be available for purchase)

Through an empirically-rich historical investigation into the changing meaning of civil rights, Before the Movement seeks to change the way we think about Black history itself. Weaving together a variety of sources—from state and federal appellate courts to long-forgotten documents found in county courthouse basements, from family interviews to church records—the book tries to reveal how African Americans thought about, talked about, and used the law long before the marches of the 1960s. In a world that denied their constitutional rights, Black people built lives for themselves through common law “rights of everyday use.” Before the Movement recovers a rich vision of Black life―a vision allied with, yet distinct from, the freedom struggles.

About the Speaker

specializes in African American history and in U.S. socio-legal history. His first book, (opens in a new tab) (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003), won the Avery Craven Prize from the Organization of American Historians. His articles have appeared in the (opens in a new tab) the (opens in a new tab) the (opens in a new tab), and the (opens in a new tab) Penningroth has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Science Foundation, and the Stanford Humanities Center, and has been recognized by the Organization of American Historians’ Huggins-Quarles committee, a Weinberg College Teaching Award (Northwestern University), a McCormick Professorship of Teaching Excellence (Northwestern), and a MacArthur Foundation fellowship.

Before joining UC Berkeley in 2015, Dylan Penningroth was on the faculty of the History Department at the University of Virginia (1999-2002), at Northwestern University (2002-2015), and a Research Professor at the American Bar Foundation (2007-2015).

In (opens in a new tab) (Liveright, 2023), Penningroth revises the conventional story of civil rights to tell a forgotten pre-history of the marches of the 1960s. Drawing on sources found in the basements of county courthouses across the nation, he reveals that African Americans have thought about, talked about, and used the law going as far back as even the era of slavery. They dealt constantly with the laws of property, contract, inheritance, marriage and divorce, of associations, and more. Before the Movement is an account of Black legal lives that looks beyond the Constitution and the criminal justice system to recover a rich, broader vision of Black life―a vision allied with, yet distinct from, the freedom struggle.

Before the Movement has been awarded the Scribes Book Award; the J. Willard Hurst Prize from the Law & Society Association; the Merle Curti Prize, Organization of American Historians; the Ellis W. Hawley Prize, Organization of American Historians; and the Langum Prize for American Legal History. It was shortlisted for the Cundill History Prize, the Stone Book Award from the Museum of African American History, and the Mark Lynton History Prize from the Columbia Journalism School.

Professor Penningroth received his BA with Distriction in History from Yale University and his MA and PhD in History from John Hopkins University.

Host or Publisher William S. Boyd School of Law