Includes bibliographical references and index.

pt. 1. A.T. Walden and pragmatic civil rights lawyering in the postwar era -- "Aren't going to let a nigger practice in our courts" : the milieu of civil rights pragmatism -- The roots of pragmatism : voting rights activism inside and outside the courts, 1944-1957 -- Housing markets, Black and White : negotiating the postwar housing crisis, 1944-1959 -- "Segregation pure and simple" : school, community, and the NAACP's education litigation, 1942-1958 -- More than "polite segregation" : Brown in public spaces, 1954-1959 -- pt. 2. The movement, its lawyers, and the fight for racial justice during the 1960s -- Seeking redress in the streets : the student movment's challenge to racial pragmatism and legal liberalism, 1960-1961 -- A volatile alliance : the marriage of lawyers and demonstrators, 1961-1964 -- Local people as agents of constitutional change : legal dead ends, the movement against "private" discrimination, and the countermobilization, 1963-1964 -- "New politics" : law, organizing, and a "movement of movements" in the Southern ghetto, 1965-1967 -- pt. 3. Questioning Brown : lawyers, courts, and communities in struggle -- A curious silence : community activism and the legal campaign to implement Brown, 1958-1971 -- An end to an "annual agony" : the backlash against Brown and busing, 1971-1974 -- "Bus them to Philadelphia" : a feminist lawyer and poor mothers crusade to redeem Brown, 1972-1980.