This searchable database includes over 1400 records on legal documents on  Enslaved Africans and Descendants.  The time period covered is  1865 through 1963.

Documents were gathered through  an electronic database search using the following search terms:  ((African or black or negro or colored)  in the same sentence with (slave or slavery or enslaved  or descendant)

Most Relevant Documents had  ((slave or slavery or enslaved or descendant) ) in the title. If you search for the term “Most Relevant” you will get these documents.

The documents were not reviewed and may only be tangentially related to the topic. Furthermore, it is possible that an inappropriate article is included in the database. If you think an article is racist, sexist, homophobic, Islamophobic or otherwise inappropriate,  please email with the (1) the name of the database and (2) the complete name of the article.

This database has two visible pages  – list of all records (initially) or records that meet the condition (upon search), and a detailed view of the selected record. When you click on any record in the list,  a detailed report will be returned for the selected record. Each record includes, at a minimum, title, citation. Some records include summaries.

Source: Enslaved Africans and Descendants 1865 to 1963 (Searchable Database) – Race, Racism and the Law

In 1916, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) mounted the largest campaign in history against lynching and racist mob violence. Focused on the protection of black lives from state-sanctioned violence, the NAACP organized mass demonstrations, advocated for an anti-lynching bill in Congress, and won a landmark criminal procedure decision in front of the Supreme Court. One hundred years later, racial violence has reemerged on the national political scene as the defining civil rights issue in contemporary U.S. politics. Chanting “Black Lives Matter,” activists have taken to the streets in big cities like New York City and small towns such as Ferguson to bring attention to the disposability of black lives at the hands of law enforcement. Numerous scholars have rushed to explain the persistence of racist violence against blacks and have linked it to such factors as discriminatory policing, unresponsive federal institutions, political policies that criminalize poverty, and persisting housing segregation. This top-down analysis is important in shining a light on oppressive institutions but it is only one part of the story. The other is how activists have strategized internally and externally with funders over the meaning of civil rights. Thus, another way of looking at the present situation is: Why does the protection of black bodies from private and state-sanctioned violence remain an unmet challenge for civil rights groups committed to racial equality? A major but under recognized reason, I propose in this article, is directly connected to movement capture–the process by which private funders use their influence in an effort to shape the agenda of vulnerable civil rights organizations.The puzzle is perplexing because throughout the twentieth century, the NAACP has been at the center of the U.S. civil rights movement and racial violence used to be at the center of the NAACP. During the first quarter of the twentieth century, the NAACP firmly established itself as the preeminent civil rights organization focused on the protection of black lives from racial violence. At the time, lynching and mob violence were at the top of the NAACP’s issue agenda since racial violence was believed to be the greatest obstacle that African Americans in the North and South faced to gaining equality in America.

Source: The Price of Civil Rights: Black Lives, White Funding, and Movement Capture – Race, Racism and the Law