While there are probably very few people who think justice is truly blind to race, gender, class and sexual orientation, this look at the courts from Restoration until today is still shocking. The systemic protection of 'white male privilege' has made it impossible for just about anyone and everyone to get a fair trial. And throughout this book Berry argues convincingly, logically, simply and clearly why this has been the case.

Berry's thesis is that the court - through judges' decisions and verdicts - uphold the prevailing 'stories' of the day, explaining why some black men - under the protection of white male privilege - were punished less harshly than others. Or why black men were so quickly and easily convicted of raping white women, or why it was considered pretty much impossible to rape a black woman or a poor white one. And on and on and on... According to Berry, judges would twist the understanding of statutes and laws to conform to and support the stories. When, after WWII, stories began to change, the different attitudes and ideas were reflected in court decisions, and Brown vs. the Board of Education, Roe vs. Wade, and other cases were possible.

Berry certainly creates a very compelling case, showing the effects of these 'stories,' the efforts to change them and the ensuing results. Although I do believe that other elements - even, as the Supreme Court illustrated so clearly during the election fiasco, personal ideology - play a role, I still think that Berry is describing a very powerful phenonmenon. And Berry's evidence of a strong bias in the courts is something every American should know about. In fact, I think this should be mandatory reading for pretty much everybody.

The "Pig Farmer's Daughter" is a stalwart exposition describing the fault line of bigotry, and bias that runs through the historical bedrock of the American judicial system. Berry offers a seamless narrative, written eloquently and without malice. Her book is an irrefutable unveiling of the ignorance that so often poses as the truth of popular culture. What is so ironic is that the players she exposes were and are supposed to be the very people who are without bias. Everyone and anyone who has a desire to understand racism and sexism in this country needs to read this book. No lawyer or judge serious about racial justice should enter a courtroom without having read it.

This book fills a stunning gap -- I've never seen another collection dedicated to the civil rights speeches that have played such a crucial role in American history. It includes all the famous speeches (I Have a Dream, etc.), but it also covers activists most of us haven't heard of, from movements most civil rights histories ignore. Each speech is accompanied by an introduction with just enough information to set the scene and put the speech in the context of its own and the other movements, but not so much that it gets in the way of the speeches themselves. Anyone who cares about how America's many peoples live together -- and how we wish they would -- must have this book on their shelf.