History

If you are interested in legislation of the Civil Rights Movement, you have two areas to explore:

A. The text of the legislation itself.

• United States Statutes at Large is the official publication site of all U.S. laws. To effectively use this set, you need to know the year in which the law was passed and it would also be helpful to know the Public Law (P. L.) number. There are several places to go to find the text of U.S. statutes:

• Public Laws at U.S.G.P.O site (104th Congress 1995-96 to the present)
• U.S. Statutes at Large -- at the Library of Congress

• The United States Code "is the codification by subject matter of the general and permanent laws of the United States. It is divided by broad subjects into 50 titles." Access the U.S. Code on the federal government site or on Nexis Uni or at the Cornell site.

B. The issues and debates surrounding proposed legislation. There are two good reference sources in Seymour Library to help you understand how legislation was enacted (or how it failed to be enacted):

• Congress and the Nation 1945-1964 and Congress and the Nation 1965-1968 -- Seymour Library Main Stacks JK999 C44x
  This is a very good source for finding out about Federal legislation: what bills were introduced, whether or not they passed, summaries of hearings, etc. Both volumes have extensive summaries of Civil Rights legislative activity, including a handy chronologies.
• West's Encyclopedia of American Law -- Seymour Library Main Stacks KF154 .W47
  Vol. 3 of this set has articles about "Civil Rights," "Civil Rights Cases," "Civil Rights Acts," and "Civil Rights Movement." There are also separate articles on major Civil Rights cases, such as Brown v. Board of Education.
• Encyclopedia of the American Constitution -- Seymour Library Main Stacks KF4548 .E53 1986
  Use the index in vol. 4. Articles discuss Civil Rights issues as they relate to the U.S. Constitution and include historical analysis. Longer articles have bibliographies.

In addition, search Knox Primo, including "All I-Share Libraries" for books about the legislation. Significant and/or controversial legislation is often treated as a subject in scholarly books.
Also, the Nexis Uni database is the best place to seek out articles in law review journals about any topic dealing with U.S. law and the Constitution.

Use the reference sources listed in the box to the right to gain background knowledge about a court case.

To find the text of U.S. Supreme Court decisions, look in the volumes located in the Standish Room on the 2nd floor of Seymour Library.

The Nexis Uni database also has U.S. Supreme Court decisions, as well as decisions from other Federal and State courts. Search by case citation or browse cases under "Landmark Cases."