Savannah Wood

SAVANNAH WOOD WAS A PARTICIPANT IN OUR 2021 DIALOGUES: LEGACY AND STORYTELLING SERIES.

Recommendation: BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENS BY MARTHA JONES

“I read these one after the other and got a great education on the legacy of Black activism in Baltimore in the 19th century. Both books illustrate how free Baltimoreans used both public demonstrations and the court system to gain more civil rights, and official recognition as full citizens. These tactics formed the basis for the Civil Rights Movement that would take place a century later.”

Book Description: Before the Civil War, colonization schemes and black laws threatened to deport former slaves born in the United States. Birthright Citizens recovers the story of how African American activists remade national belonging through battles in legislatures, conventions, and courthouses. They faced formidable opposition, most notoriously from the US Supreme Court decision in Dred Scott. Still, Martha S. Jones explains, no single case defined their status. Former slaves studied law, secured allies, and conducted themselves like citizens, establishing their status through local, everyday claims. All along they argued that birth guaranteed their rights. With fresh archival sources and an ambitious reframing of constitutional law-making before the Civil War, Jones shows how the Fourteenth Amendment constitutionalized the birthright principle, and black Americans' aspirations were realized. Birthright Citizens tells how African American activists radically transformed the terms of citizenship for all Americans.