Klarman, Jim Crow, and Civil Rights

Klarman's work was both excellent and informative and made for very interesting reading.  He demonstrated an unusual capacity to shuffle the legal deck a bit and show how notably human the judicial decision making process has so often been.  The transformation from Plessy to Brown was legally historic by any standards and Klarman illustrates it was a change that resulted from modified societal and judicial attitudes rather than from changes in statute.  For those who believe decisions are formed from law and precedent, this should come as somewhat of a surprise.  He gives other examples and even cites a case (Shelley v. Kraemer [1948]) where the eventual Supreme Court ruling virtually ignored clear precedent in its decision.  And, in the case of black law school applicant Virgil Hawkins, he demonstrates how lower courts can frustrate judicial rulings that have been rendered even by the nation's highest judicial body.  Throughout, he emphasizes the role of attitudes - by citizens, judges, adversaries, and others - in the long and often convoluted process that leads to formulation of a somewhat finalized legal product.  Klarman supplies a lot for the reader to consider and digest.