From Civil Actions to Civil Rights: Evolving Strategies from State-Level Torts to the “Federal Civil Rights Act”

A lecture by Dr Myisa Eatman (Harvard University) for the International History Research Seminar Series.

This paper examines how Black Americans, civil rights organizations, and the Black press transformed their approach to challenging police brutality and white-on-Black violence from the 1930s through the early 1960s, shifting from individualized state tort litigation to collective federal civil rights claims. This legal evolution—from state-level torts to federal civil rights law—represented more than tactical adaptation; it reflected Black Americans' fundamental reconceptualization of their relationship to legal institutions and their claims to full citizenship under democratic governance.

The Centre for International History draws on the burgeoning insights of scholars in the past few decades that history does not stop at the border of the nation-state.  International history explores comparative approaches and uncovers transnational flows of commerce, politics, culture, and ideas. The Centre's research seminars and public events will display these methods while examining historical developments across the globe especially in the late modern period.

Please let us know if you have any access requirements, such as ISL/English interpreting, so that we can facilitate you in attending this event. Contact: gearyd@tcd.ie