have a problem with using words like "brilliant", "masterful" and "intelligent." But willing apply all words to this brilliant book, masterfully research and intelligently told.

The author gives a very full and complete treatise on Brown versus the Board of Education, but of greater interest, he writes of all the history that lead up to the ruling.

An exceptional book chronicling an extremely important issue in our country's history.

Long a mainstay of every 1L's pre-law school summer reading list, SIMPLE JUSTICE is more than a retelling of the tortured history of the landmark cases now known collectively as Brown v. Board of Ed. It is more than a retelling of the agonizing struggles of both gifted and ordinary people---black and white and every other---to reverse the four centuries of racial disparagement that make up the ugliest of all underpinnings of the American Experiment. What SIMPLE JUSTICE is, is an exhaustive sociological history of race relations in the United States to the 1950s.

It is a book every American should read. The endemic quality of racism in the American psyche is so overwhelming that it is easy to lose the human element. SIMPLE JUSTICE restores that element with sensitive, intelligent writing, exhaustive and documented research, and a tone which is pitch perfect, strident when need be, reasoned and thoughtful throughout. Ultimately optimistic, SIMPLE JUSTICE will renew your belief in the American system even while tempering it.

In it's retelling of nightmarish incident after nightmarish incident (the explosive and hideous lynchings are often easier to understand than the equally hideous and more subtle segregation and caricaturing that endured for, it seems, ever), SIMPLE JUSTICE shows us an America riven by its view of itself as a noble nation being eaten by the canker in its soul.

Although many Americans now consider race discrimination passe, it is not so hard to see the continuation of a pattern of violence toward blacks and the denigration of the black experience, even today. And yet, there is more, for not only are Black Americans denigrated, but White Americans as well, both suffering because this nation is only a fraction of what it might othewise be.

SIMPLE JUSTICE is a crucial Civics lesson. Read it to learn. Read it to know. Read it. Read it again.

Long a mainstay of every 1L's pre-law school summer reading list, SIMPLE JUSTICE is more than a retelling of the tortured history of the landmark cases now known collectively as Brown v. Board of Ed. It is more than a retelling of the agonizing struggles of both gifted and ordinary people---black and white and every other---to reverse the four centuries of racial disparagement that make up the ugliest of all underpinnings of the American Experiment. What SIMPLE JUSTICE is, is an exhaustive sociological history of race relations in the United States to the 1950s.

It is a book every American should read. The endemic quality of racism in the American psyche is so overwhelming that it is easy to lose the human element. SIMPLE JUSTICE restores that element with sensitive, intelligent writing, exhaustive and documented research, and a tone which is pitch perfect, strident when need be, reasoned and thoughtful throughout.

In it's retelling of nightmarish incident after nightmarish incident (the explosive and hideous lynchings are often easier to understand than the equally hideous and more subtle segregation and caricaturing that endured for, it seems, ever), SIMPLE JUSTICE shows us an America riven by its view of itself as a noble nation being eaten by the canker in its soul.

Although many Americans now consider race discrimination passe, it is not so hard to see the continuation of a pattern of violence toward blacks and the denigration of the black experience, even today. And yet, there is more, for not only are Black Americans denigrated, but White Americans as well, both suffering because this nation is only a fraction of what it might othewise be.

SIMPLE JUSTICE is a crucial Civics lesson. Read it to learn. Read it to know. Read it. Read it again.

This is certainly the best book ever written -- the best book that ever will be written -- about race, law and American society. It is a remarkably insightful history and one of the most stunning existing examples of narrative journalism. It is a masterpiece.

I'm a fan of nonfiction works and this easily moved to my top 5 favorite books. When I was growing up there were no courses on the contributions blacks made to America. There was no black history month. And I was cheated. I'm a 50+ white woman who lived through desegregation and had no clue that it was a struggle. I honestly don't remember a time when my elementary classes were all white but they must have been. I do remember clearly when my elementary class stopped being all white. That was when Richard Harris became my Batman buddy. On the aftenoons following the show we would go to the neighborhood soda shop and have a coke and discuss all the action of the previous evening's show and check for new Batman bubble gum cards with the intensity that only 5th graders can bring to such an important endeavor. It felt normal to chat Batman with Richard; and I'm so sorry for all the children that had such a dumb practice as segregation rob them of those moments.

This book read like a thiriller for me. Couldn't put it down. Underlined and highlighted parts. Read other sections out loud to my husband and to some friends at work. This is American history. Everyone should have the opportunity to learn about the value of education, the value of varied experiences and the perseverance to acquire the rights that should never have been denied to the black people. It's made me hungry to know more and I'll be keeping my eye out for other works by Kluger. Excellent author.

I just finished this book, A Simple Justice, and it is fantastic. It's the story of Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka, which is the landmark Supreme Court case that desegregated compulsory public schools in America. But it's so much more than that. After reading this book, I felt almost ashamed of my previous ignorance to the struggles and condition of black america at the hands of almost everyone else in the country. It is comprehensive in its scope and perspicacious in its analysis, sparing no feelings on either (or rather, any) side. I believe myself to be, for the most part, a judicious man when it comes to philosophical or sociological observations, but Kluger was able to open my eyes to angles I had previously missed on issues I thought I had resolved long ago. So if you're not too scared of big books, this one's worth the time.

Richard Kluger's Simple Justice was not only one of the most detailed, but also most interesting books I have read on history/political science. Although I feel that I'm more aware than the average white American in regard to the current economic and ethnic social disparities in the US, and also thought I was reasonably knowledgeable in regard to the civil rights struggle in the US, this book taught me a great deal.

I found part I of Kulger's book "Under the Color of Law" very interesting. One of the things of interest to me was how people during that time, both black and white, thought about the issues. I don't mean the hardcore abolitionists, or `civil rights-soldiers' so much as the common white and black man, and also those political leaders, including the more powerful ones like President Lincoln who were somewhat more indirectly involved in the changes that eventually started to take place.

Tom Anderson
Anderson Analytics, LLC

Richard Kluger's Simple Justice was not only one of the most detailed, but also most interesting books I have read on history/political science. Although I feel that I'm more aware than the average white American in regard to the current economic and ethnic social disparities in the US, and also thought I was reasonably knowledgeable in regard to the civil rights struggle in the US, this book taught me a great deal.

I found part I of Kulger's book "Under the Color of Law" very interesting. One of the things of interest to me was how people during that time, both black and white, thought about the issues. I don't mean the hardcore abolitionists, or `civil rights-soldiers' so much as the common white and black man, and also those political leaders, including the more powerful ones like President Lincoln who were somewhat more indirectly involved in the changes that eventually started to take place.

Tom Anderson
Anderson Analytics, LLC

Richard Kluger's Simple Justice was not only one of the most detailed, but also most interesting books I have read on history/political science. Although I feel that I'm more aware than the average white American in regard to the current economic and ethnic social disparities in the US, and also thought I was reasonably knowledgeable in regard to the civil rights struggle in the US, this book taught me a great deal.

I found part I of Kulger's book "Under the Color of Law" very interesting. One of the things of interest to me was how people during that time, both black and white, thought about the issues. I don't mean the hardcore abolitionists, or `civil rights-soldiers' so much as the common white and black man, and also those political leaders, including the more powerful ones like President Lincoln who were somewhat more indirectly involved in the changes that eventually started to take place.

This book is eloquently written and covers a great deal of history in a very gripping report. Kluger has researched a great deal of information and presents an interesting argument. I'd also suggest Orfield's Dismantling Desegregation and Perry's Young, Gifted, and Black.

One forewarning about Kluger's book is that the binding is terrible. I read this book as a part of a class, and everyone had chunks of pages falling out of the book. You will want to keep this gem of a book as together as possible!

Kluger's gripping study covers overall situations, legislation, attitudes, and test cases dating back a century before the case which is listed in the title. As a result of this comprehensive treatment, one may fully grasp the complex, puzzling, and often chilling elements of the history of the struggle for equality.

Kluger's gripping study covers overall situations, legislation, attitudes, and test cases dating back a century before the case which is listed in the title. As a result of this comprehensive treatment, one may fully grasp the complex, puzzling, and often chilling elements of the history of the struggle for equality.

The 1954 Supreme Court Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education decision was, according to Richard Kluger in Simple Justice, one of the high court's single most important rulings. This decision invalidated the ruling in the 1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson case that held that segregated facilities were acceptable as long they were "separate but equal." The court also overruled a lower court ruling that the Topeka schools were substantially equal and hence constitutional.

In reaching its decision the court found that it was inconclusive if the original framers of the 14th Amendment intended to outlaw segregation in educational facilities. Actually, it is clear from the historical record that the authors of the 14th Amendment did not intend banning such segregation. The court also took the attitude that social circumstances had changed regarding the role of public education since 1896 so much that the court simply could not be held by the Plessy ruling any more. The court also took the position that segregation was inherently harmful to minority groups.

Another related case to Brown was the Bolling case regarding school segregation in the District of Columbia. In this case, the court held that the 5th Amendment applied to racial segregation. In the Brown and Bolling decisions, the court held that referees should be appointed by the lower courts to supervise the end of segregation.

The court decisions in the Brown and Bolling cases were written in very brief texts. They failed to convincingly explain to a skeptical public just why it was that segregation was unconstitutional. They also did not quote the lone dissenter in the Plessy decision, John Marshall Harlan, on just why segregation was inherently unconstitutional.

The content of the actual court rulings reveal that the justices failed to properly understand the evility of segregation. This showed a basic ignorance of the justices of the effects of racism upon minorities. The record also shows that Chief Justice Earl Warren prized public relations over doing his duty. Additionally, in an effort for an unanimous decision, the actual ruling in Brown was severely watered down. By doing so, the court inadvertently signaled the segregationists that it really was not serious about enforcing equality in the land. The end result was that a decade later, there was little real progress made towards racial integration in the Deep South.

As the above shows, Kluger's volume about Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education contains plenty of sharp opinions about the Brown case and its true role in the history of American race relations.
Kluger's book is also an invaluable source of information about the folks who actually filed the historic lawsuits in the first place.

Kluger's book also contains masterful character sketches of the leading figures behind the historic Supreme Court decisions. One of these heroes was the flawed Earl Warren who had earlier supported the mass detainment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

The principal hero in Kluger's mind, is Thurgood Marshall. Marshall was a tireless crusader for civil rights. Marshall had been the head of the NAACP's legal division since 1938. Initially, Marshall refrained from contronting the Plessy decision head on because he realized that doing so would be counter productive. That being the case, Marshall endeavored to win victories for minorities within the separate but equal guidelines. This strategy resulted in a string of victories that encouraged Marshall to challenge the Plessy ruling.

Unlike most other authors of books about the history of civil rights, Kluger does not laud Marshall for being a latter day saint. Kluger's portrait of Marshall is both fair and balanced and takes note of Marshall's flaws.

Simple Justice is a classic work about civil rights history and as such should be required reading in American History classes.

An absolute must for any library collection. An excellent historical documentation of Brown v Board and nearly every case since the the civil war that impacted the Struggle for Equality. It was required reading in one of my law school classes. I highly recommend this book!

This is the one book where all the rumours, gossips,government
participation in hindering black movement into the mainstream for obvious reasons like votes was documented. Simple Justice is really two books in one.
On the one hand there is the exhaustive documentation of the race relation in this country. the evolution from sharecropping, the obstacles and outright bigotry of some white people even leaders and experts in concluding thru so-called Sponsored studies that the blackman was genetically inferior and the subsequent counter studies that goes contrary to genetics, in d issue of Gene vs. Enviroment
On the other hand the legal maneuvering resulting in d decision we now called the brown vs. boe. the role of some white brothers is acknowledged here. thanks to the supreme court later to be headed by chief Justice Jarren-for daring to do what was then the inconceivable.
the decision among other thing brought the power of government and the role of d supreme court as the pre-eminent decision maker to the fore.
I must mention here that the actors like martin luther king jnr, Thurgood Marshal later a supreme court judge ,naacp members and other black men and women who risk all they have to win this case.
**I recommend that this book should b fed if possible to all blackmen in high schools that they may know how much it took to get to where we are today. that education should be taking seriously by all black people.

Better than any biography on any of the characters involved in the many cases leading up to the Brown v. Board of Education decision. Dramatically will increase your understanding of civil rights history. The best legal analysis and historical depiction of the Brown decision. A compelling read.

A quarter of a century after it was first published, "Simple Justice" still has the power to move, enrage and touch the hearts of anyone who believes that justice ultimately prevails.

It should be required reading in any college U.S. history course because it shines an intense spotlight on the complex development of legal issues and thinking that produced the end of segregation in the United States.

I do not exaggerate when I say I believe that this is the best history book I've ever read. Further, it's wise to read it now, because an awful lot of the people instrumental in the ultimate decision, Brown vs. the Board of Education, are dying out. The late Thurgood Marshall is a great example of a lost legal talent and courageous leader who did the right thing by all Americans by winning this case. Read this book now, if only so you'll recognize the heroes in their obituaries.

What Richard Kluger has done in this account is spell out the development first of segregation, telling us just who and how the dreaded Jim Crow laws came about-including segregation laws in the North-and then walk us through how, piece by piece, legal decisions were strung together to put an end to legal segregation.

I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s and, if I thought about it at all, had the idea that the Brown decision had more or less come out of nowhere. Eventually, I began to catch on, and then I read this book. If you are similar-minded, this book will set you straight and point you to the many unsung heroes who have made us a fairer country, in line with the ideals that helped found this country. If you're a parent looking for good role models, forget sports and entertainment. Look to this book for examples of people who literally risked everything, and often paid dearly, to do the right thing. They didn't shrink from the challenge; they stepped forward, many many times. That so many others did not only reminds us of how fearful we are to force change or risk our own well being to tackle injustice. I wish I could rate it higher.

I am taking the time to write a review of this book simply because I consider it the best non-fiction book I have ever read. (And no, I am not a friend or relative of the author.)

The topic is an important topic, but that is not what made this book special for me. What made it special is the narrative style employed by Kluger that makes this book read like a novel. It engaged me and pulled me through to see how the story turned out. (Not the Court Case, I knew that result; but what I didn't know was how the case impacted each of the individual actors. It was a life changing event for all of them and Kluger explores this in detail.)

This is the most thorough book you will read on Brown v. Board of Education. Kluger makes an attentive reader of his work a modest authority on the subject. You had better be very interested in the topic, however, as he leaves no stone unturned. Kluger writes not as a lawyer or historian but as a journalist who is witness to the multitude of events which he depicts.

Besides the numerous civil rights leaders and soldiers the reader encounters, the author provides an intimate account of Supreme Court justices and the process of decision-making. This proves to be the most compelling aspect of the book.

It's required reading for every social revolutionary.

There are some books that every American needs to read in order to be a responsible citizen; this is one of those books. (The only other that comes to mind right now is "The Federalist Papers.")

"Simple Justice" is really two books in one: the first deals with the horrific institution of slavery in the United States and the post-Civil War oppression of blacks in the form of Jim Crow laws; the second deals with the strategy that desegregationists (principally the NAACP) used to dismantle the formal apartheid of the South.

Evaluated solely on its subject matter, this book would merit the requirement of being read. The story of how Thurgood Marshall (then a top NAACP attorney, later U.S. Solicitor General, then U.S. Supreme Court Justice) chipped away at the "separate but equal" doctrine in small steps gives the reader an appreciation of how entrenched institutional racism was as recently as the mid-20th Century. In addition, the reader will gain an understanding of how what is arguably the most important decision of the Supreme Court of the 1900s came about.

But there's another reason to read "Simple Justice." Richard Kluger is an amazingly gifted writer (for proof, try reading the first chapter of "Ashes to Ashes," his monumental work on the tobacco industry; even if you don't smoke, his description of smoking in the first chapter will have you feeling the smoke go down your throat), and his powerful prose makes you feel the pain that his characters endured as a result of slavery and Jim Crow laws.

By no means is this is a "fun" book to read; indeed, parts of it are incredibly unpleasant to read and will make you ashamed to be an American (unless, of course, you're John Rocker). But it's precisely because Kluger is able to evoke such shame that makes this book so important.

This book presents an excellent history of the struggle for civil rights in America, culminating in the NAACP victory in the Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education. The book is marred by several glaring factual errors, however.

I love this book. Kluger's account of what led up to Brown v. Bd. of Education is mesmerizing. He is a historian, a legal commentator, a social critic, and a wonderful writer. I have happily recommended this book to many friends; all who have attacked it have come away impressed. Do yourself a favor. The book is timeless.

Do yourself a favor, and sit down with this book. Simple Justice does a superb job of showing us how a belief in what is right and a commitment to change can alter the course of history. Thurgood Marshall and his team are national heros, and the Warren court showed the courage necessary to do the right thing despite political pressure. Read it, read it, read it.

this study of one of the most significant racial landmarks of recent years deserves a wide readership. kluger is a master at bringing complex historic events to life. he is a journalist-historian -- a rare breed in our culture -- with a remarkable ability to define social and cultural developments, with a strong sense of time and place. This book should be recommended reading in college classrooms.