Document Type

Book Review

Publication Title

Vermont Law Review

Publication Date

Summer 2007

Abstract

The great injustice in our society in the twentieth century has been inflicted against our minority populations. William Taylor's The Passion of My Times: An Advocate's Fifty-Year Journey in the Civil Rights Movement provides an intimate look into many of the legal battles that brought about significant improvements in the area of civil rights in this country over during the last half-century. However, the injustices continue to this day. In one of the great debates over affirmative action in the Supreme Court, Justices Ginsburg, Souter, and Breyer recently pointed out the continued disadvantages faced by our minority population:

In the wake "of a system of racial caste only recently ended," large disparities endure. Unemployment, poverty, and access to health care vary disproportionately by race. Neighborhoods and schools remain racially divided. AfricanAmerican and Hispanic children are all too often educated in poverty-stricken and underperforming institutions. Adult African-Americans and Hispanics generally earn less than whites with equivalent levels of education. Equally credentialed job applicants receive different receptions depending on their race. Irrational prejudice is still encountered in real estate markets and consumer transactions.

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