Race and the Law Seminar: The NAACP in Maryland

You may contact Bill Sleeman, the course liaison, for research-related questions.

Getting Started Historical Research Legal Research

Getting Started

As in all projects, unless you are already knowledgeable about the topic area, it is best to start with introductory resources and then to consult more focused works; moving from secondary to primary resources.

Articles and books can provide you with an overview of your topic and help you think of search terms that you might not have thought of otherwise. They will also cite primary authorities such as statutes and case law. You can then use the primary sources cited in the secondary sources as a jumping off point to find other primary sources.

  • Shepardize or KeyCite them to see what other sources have cited them;
  • Read cases to see what other sources they cite;
  • On Westlaw or in West Digests, look up the topics and key numbers in the cases you've already read to find other cases that address the same issues;
  • On Lexis, use "More Like This" to find other sources with wording or citation patterns similar to the document you started with;
  • Read annotations to statutes to find cross references to cases that have analyzed them or regulations that have been issued under their authority.

Journals and Law Reviews

The two main indexes to law journals are LegalTrac and Index to Legal Periodicals & Books. These indexes include references to many journals not included in Westlaw or Lexis databases and in some cases provide access to the full text electronically. Each of these two online indexes has a parallel print version: the Current Law Index (K33 .C87), and the Index to Legal Periodicals (K9 .N32) are shelved near the print journals on level 1. The Index to Legal Periodicals is particularly helpful if you need to find articles published prior to 1980. Another very important and useful tool for locating articles in law reviews and bar association journals is HeinOnline. A full-text, image-based collection of more than 260 legal periodical titles. Coverage for each journal starts at its inception and continues to the most current volume allowed under contract between Hein and the journal. Hein-On-Line also includes coverage of the Federal Register from 1967 to 1980. .

Additionally, many journals not subscribed to directly in a print version are available in electronic form via one of the library's databases. The list below of subscription databases should help you get started in locating these resources.

Most print journals are shelved on level 1 of the library, in alphabetical order by journal title. Many of these titles also have an electronic version. To find out if the library has a particular journal title in electronic format, first check the Full Text Citation Linker (be aware that the Linker does not offer full coverage of all online full text at the library, and requires a Blackboard login, journal title, and year), or ask a librarian for help.

Finally, a complete run of the Afro American newspaper on microfilm is available in the Thurgood Marshall Law Library.

Electronic Journals


Subscription Databases

The databases below will provide access to a variety of primary and secondary sources made available in electronic form.

  • Academic Search Premier. A general academic tool offering indexing and abstracts for more than 4,500 journals, including access to the full text of more than 3,600 journals.
  • HeinOnline. Full-text, image-based collection of more than 700 legal periodical titles. Coverage for each journal starts at its inception and continues to the most current volume allowed under contract between Hein and the journal. Hein-On-Line also includes coverage of the Federal Register from 1936 to 1980.
  • LexisNexis. Database of legal and nonlegal information. Requires valid Lexis password.
  • LexisNexis Primary Sources in U.S. History. Primary Sources in African American History Access to primary source material, some full text. Provides access to all Finding Aids for the Papers of the NAACP. Also includes major federal legislation, Supreme Court decisions, scholarly articles, photographs, autobiographies and manuscript materials.
  • LLMC Digital (Law Library Microform Consortium). This is the digital version of the LLMC microfilm collection, which consists primarily of historic government documents. An excellent resource for federal laws, administrative regulations and administrative decisions.
  • U.S. Law Week/Supreme Court Today (Tracks every Supreme Court petition and case on the docket, from filing to final disposition and highlights important federal and state legal developments, non-decisional and pre-decisional, across specialized fields).
  • Westlaw. Database of legal and nonlegal information. Requires valid Westlaw password.

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Agencies, Associations, and Non-Governmental Organizations

Thurgood Marshall Law Library - Special Collections

Additional Electronic Resources

Historical and Archival Resources

Historiography

Historiography is the discipline associated with the principals and practice of writing history and conducting historical research using primary resources. The resources below provide an introduction to the process of conducting historical research.

Print

  • Harvard Guide to American History (E178 .F77 1974 )
  • The Modern Researcher (D13 .B334 1977)
  • Not by Facts Alone: Essays on Reading and Writing History (D13 .C585 1989)

Internet

Primary Resources on the Internet

It is impossible to list in one location all of the unique and potentially relevant Internet resources devoted to history. The list below represents only a small selection of the many resources available. If you need additional assistance please contact the library liaison assigned to the course.

Maryland

General

Microforms

Often overlooked microforms provide a valuable body of research material that can help facilitate the historical legal research process. The library holds a number of microform collections that can be used to research legal issues in Maryland. This includes several collections from the archives of the NAACP. All of the NAACP microfilm may be searched by subject in the library catalog. Additional microfilm material includes a complete run of the Baltimore Afro American newspaper, the papers of William Hastie, the Baltimore Sun (1982 - to date), The Daily Record (1888 - to date), Maryland Legislative History files on microfilm, Supreme Court Records and Briefs, and the series Historical Trials on Microfiche.

All microform material is located on the first floor of the Thurgood Marshall Law Library.

Select Bibliography

The following is a partial list of resources available from the Thurgood Marshall Law Library for Race and the Law Seminar: the NAACP in Maryland . For additional sources on this topic, please visit the library's online Catalog or check with a librarian.

Articles

[Articles about the NAACP are voluminous and researchers are advised to also search in one of the indexing tools mentioned above]

35 U. Balt. L. Rev. 313 (2006). Anderson, Jose Felipe. The Criminal Justice Principles of Charles Hamilton Houston: Lessons in Innovation. (via Westlaw)

9 J. Gender Race & Just. 637 (2006). Lovelace, H. Timothy. Revisiting the Need for Negro Lawyers: Are Today's Black Corporate Lawyers Houstonian Social Engineers? (via Westlaw)

50 How.L.J. 113 (2006). Fox, James. Intimitations of Citizenship: Repressions and Expressions of Equal Citizenship in the Era of Jim Crow. (via Westlaw)

61 Md. L. Rev. 761 (2002). Reynolds, William. The Legal History of the Great Sit-In Case of Bell v. Maryland. (via Westlaw)

25 Ethnic and Racial Stud. 64 (2002). Jeffries, Judson L. Black Radicalism and Political Repression in Baltimore: the Case of the Black Panther Party.

5 Perspectives on Politics 81 (2007). Meyer, David S. Signals and Spillover: Brown v. Board of Education and Other Social Movements.

4 J. Negro Ed. 49 (1935). Houston, Charles H. The Need for Negro Lawyers. (via JSTOR)

4 U. Sussex J. Contmp. Hist. 1 (2002). Watson, Jon. Crossing the Colour Lines in the City of Angels: the NAACP and the Zoot-Suit Riot of 1943.

33 J. Sup. Ct. H. 353 (2008). Peppers, Todd C. William Thaddeus Coleman, Jr.: Breaking the Color Barrier at the U.S. Supreme Court. (via Wiley InterScience)

Digital Commons

Banks, Taunya Lovell, Setting the Record Straight: Maryland's First Black Women Law Graduates. 63 Maryland Law Review 752 (2004).

Bogen, David S., "Precursors of Rosa Parks: Maryland Transportation Cases Between the Civil War and the Beginning of World War I " (2004). All Faculty Publications. Paper 70.

Bogen, David S., "The Transformation of the Fourteenth Amendment: Reflections from the Admission of Maryland's First Black Lawyers" (1985). All Faculty Publications. Paper 185.

Bogen, David S., "The Forgotten Era," 19 Maryland Bar Journal 10 (1986).

Power, Garrett, "Meade v. Dennistone: The NAACP's Test Case to "...Sue Jim Crow Out of Maryland with the Fourteenth Amendment."" (2004). All Faculty Publications. Paper 183.

Reynolds, William L., "Foreword: The Legal History of the Great Sit-In Case of Bell v. Maryland" (2002). All Faculty Publications. Paper 576.

Books

Branch, Taylor. At Canaan's edge : America in the King years, 1965-68.
New York : Simon & Schuster, c2006.
xiii, 1039 p., [24] p. of plates : ill. ; 25 cm.
Call number E185.615 .B67 2006

Branch, Taylor. Parting the waters : America in the King years, 1954-1963.
New York : Simon and Schuster, c1988.
Call number E185.61 .B7914 1988

Branch, Taylor.
Pillar of fire : America in the King years, 1963-65.
New York, NY : Simon & Schuster, 1999, c1998.
Call number E185.61 .B7915 1999

Carter, Robert L., 1917- A matter of law : a memoir of struggle in the cause of equal rights.
New York : New Press ; New York : Distributed by W.W. Norton, c2005.
Call number KF373.C378 A3 2005

King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968.
The papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Berkeley : University of California Press, c1992-<c2007 >
Call number E185.97.K5 A2 1992

Kluger, Richard. Simple justice : the history of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America's struggle for equality.
New York : Knopf, 2004.
Call number KF4155 .K55 2004

McNeil, Genna Rae.
Groundwork [electronic resource] : Charles Hamilton Houston and the struggle for civil rights..
Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, 1985, 1983.
Call number KF373.H644 M3 1985
Also available as an Ebook via Netlibrary.

Thompson, Bruce A., 1962- The civil rights vanguard : the NAACP and the black community in Baltimore, 1931-1942. 1996.
Call number F189.B19 N56 1996

Reporting civil rights.
New York : Library of America : Distributed to the trade in the U.S. by Penguin Putnam, c2003.
Call number E185.61 .R47 2003 (companion Internet site)

Smith, C. Fraser, 1938- Here lies Jim Crow : civil rights in Maryland.
Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.
Call number E185.93.M2 S65 2008

Tushnet, Mark V., 1945- Making civil rights law : Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court, 1936-1961.
New York : Oxford University Press, 1994.
Call number KF4755 .T87 1994

Watson, Denton L. Lion in the lobby : Clarence Mitchell, Jr.'s struggle for the passage of civil rights. Lanham, MD : University Press of America, 2002.
Call number E185.97.M63 W37 2002

AudioVisual

Eyes on the prize: America's civil rights years / WGBH Boston ; a production of Blackside, Inc. [and] CPB, Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Alexandria, VA : PBS Video, 1986.
Call number VIDEO E185.615 .E93 1986

Color at the bar / Maryland Public Television.
[Baltimore, Md.] Maryland Public Television, 2001.
Call number VIDEO F189.B19 C39 2001

Government Documents

United States. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties.
Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act : joint hearing before the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties and the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, One Hundred Tenth Congress, first session, on H.R. 923, June 12, 2007.
Washington : U.S. G.P.O. : For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O., 2007.
Call number Y 4.J 89/1:110-31
Also available in electronic form from GPO.

Print Archives

Memorandum of the American Jewish Congress and the National Association of Colored People as amici curiae in support of petitions. 1949 (the Hollywood Ten)
5 leaves, typed; 36 cm.
Call number Special Collections KF200 Marshall 1949

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Legal Resources

Primary Authorities

"Primary authorities [law] are authorized statements of the law by governmental institutions. Such documents include the written opinions of courts (case law); constitutions; legislation; rules of court and the rules, regulations and opinions of administrative agencies." An Introduction to Legal Research. Jacobsten, Merskey and Dunn (1998).

Federal Legislative Materials

Federal Administrative Materials

Judicial Materials

NOTE: for both more comprehensive and more precise case law searches be sure to check either Lexis or Westlaw.

Lexis Tip: If you find one good case on Lexis, you may be able to find others by identifying the headnote that best describes the issue of interest to you, then clicking "More Like This Headnote," or by Shepardizing the case to find other cases that have cited it for the issue represented by the headnote.

Westlaw Tip: If you find one good case on Westlaw, you may be able to find others by identifying the headnote(s) that best describes the issue of interest to you, then clicking "Most Cited Cases" for that headnote. You could also try clicking "KeyCite Notes" to fine other cases that have cited your case for the issue represented by that headnote.

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Secondary Authorities

"Secondary authority is anything other than primary authority that a court could use as a basis for decision, should the matter you are researching come before a court...Secondary authority includes commentary sources...treatises, periodicals, dictionaries, and encyclopedias of various sorts." The Process of Legal Research: Successful Strategies. Kunz, Schmedemann, et al. (1992).

Legal Encyclopedias

Legal encyclopedias are a secondary source for understanding the law. They are an excellent resource for starting research particularly in an unfamiliar area of the law. Usually arranged alphabetically by subject the brief articles will contain citations to case law and statutes relevant to the topic.

  • West's Maryland Law Encyclopedia (KFM1265.W3)

Two other, more general, legal encyclopedias are:

  • Corpus Juris Secundum [commonly referred to as CJS] ( KF154 .C57)
  • American Jurisprudence [commonly referred to as AMJUR] (KF154 .A51)

Commentaries

Like legal encyclopedias commentaries are a secondary source that can provide valuable background when approaching a topic area that may be new to the researcher. There are a number of commentary types available although almost all share some basic features - detailed analysis of the issues represented by a particular case or series of cases; annotations to case law and relevant statutes; and some type of internal finding aid or index. The American Law Reports is one of the most frequently consulted type of commentary.

  • ALR (American Law Reports) (REF KF132.L2)

Additional sources of secondary material: hornbooks, nutshells, treatises, and restatements can be located by using the library's catalog.

Maryland Materials

General

Researching Maryland Law - A comprehensive guide to locating Maryland legal resources.

Ghost Hunting: Searching for Maryland Legislative History - (courtesy the author, Michael S. Miller, former Director of the Maryland State Law Library, 1977-2005)

Judiciary

Records and Briefs (KFM1248.9)
The Thurgood Marshall Law Library receives the records and briefs of reported cases from both the Court of Appeals and the Court of Special Appeals. The earlier ones, from 1948 for the Court of Appeals and from 1967 for the Court of Special Appeals are in paper format and are shelved in the Maryland Collection on level two. The later ones, from the October 1979 term, are on microfiche are are filed on level one.

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