A noted legal scholar examines the source of human rights, arguing that rights are the result of particular experiences with injustice and looking at the implications in terms of the right to privacy, voting rights, and other rights.

The international legal framework of human rights presents itself as universal. But rights do not exist as a mere framework; they are enacted, practiced, and debated in local contexts. Rights After Wrongs ethnographically explores the chasm between the ideals and the practice of human rights. Specifically, it shows where the sweeping colonial logics of Western law meets the lived experiences, accumulated histories, and humanitarian debts present in post-colonial Zimbabwe. Through a comprehensive survey of human rights scholarship, Shannon Morreira explores the ways in which the global framework of human rights is locally interpreted, constituted, and contested in Harare, Zimbabwe, and Musina and Cape Town, South Africa. Presenting the stories of those who lived through the violent struggles of the past decades, Morreira shows how supposedly universal ideals become localized in the context of post-colonial Southern Africa. Rights After Wrongs uncovers the disconnect between the ways human rights appear on paper and the ways in which it is possible for people to use and understand them in everyday life.

An eminent constitutional scholar reveals how our approach to rights is dividing America, and shows how we can build a better system of justice.

When a United Press International executive asked Al Benn where he wanted to begin his journalism career, he unhesitatingly replied: “Where the action is.” Little did he know at the time that he’d wind up reporting on America’s civil rights movement in Birmingham, Alabama which was known as BOMBingham in the 1960s. Benn had no experience as a reporter in 1964, but he quickly learned by following and watching those who did. One night, he might be in a pasture covering a Ku Klux Klan rally where grand dragons and imperial wizards in white sheets delivered hate-filled speeches under the glow of burning crosses. The next night, he might be inside a black church where civil rights leaders called for peace and racial harmony. It was an exciting, often harrowing time for the rookie reporter—filled with deadline pressures, danger and the knowledge that he had become personally involved in covering developments of historic proportions. When he wasn’t chronicling civil rights events, Benn wrote about scientists and astronauts involved in the space race as well as reaction on the home front to the war that raged in Vietnam. His favorite assignment was covering football at the University of Alabama where he got to know the Crimson Tide’s head coach, Paul “Bear” Bryant, and reported the exploits of star quarterbacks such as Joe Namath and Ken Stabler. He also found time to write several exclusive stories. One involved secret payments to the widows of Alabama pilots killed during the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba. Another centered on the national boycott of Beatles records--launched by two Birmingham radio personalities upset over a comment by John Lennon that his group was more popular than Jesus. Benn left UPI in 1967 to begin the newspaper phase of his journalism career. He worked in three states, becoming an editor and publisher, before landing his best job of all —covering rural Alabama for the Montgomery Advertiser in 1980. Benn has written about heroes and heels, legends and losers, captains of industry and disgraced CEOs. Most of all, he’s focused on the people who work hard to support their families and improve the quality of life in their cities. They’re his heroes. This book explores Benn’s four decades as a journalist. It recounts the hectic pace at UPI where he faced deadlines every minute as well as newspaper work that afforded him a chance to write columns, do investigative reporting and, as he did at UPI, drop everything and race to the next big story. It’s also about growing up in the slums of a small Pennsylvania town and then enlisting in the Marine Corps where he gained his first journalism experience. So, come along on a 40-year ride through an important period in American history. It’s a career as seen through the eyes of a reporter who admits he got just what he asked for in 1964—plenty of action.

When Governor Terry Sanford established the North Carolina Fund in 1963, he saw it as a way to provide a better life for the "tens of thousands whose family income is so low that daily subsistence is always in doubt." Illustrated with evocative photographs by Billy Barnes, To Right These Wrongs offers a lively account of this pioneering effort in America's War on Poverty. Robert Korstad and James Leloudis describe how the Fund's initial successes grew out of its reliance on private philanthropy and federal dollars and its commitment to the democratic mobilization of the poor. Both were calculated tactics designed to outflank conservative state lawmakers and entrenched local interests that nourished Jim Crow, perpetuated one-party politics, and protected an economy built on cheap labor. By late 1968, when the Fund closed its doors, a resurgent politics of race had gained the advantage, led by a Republican Party that had reorganized itself around opposition to civil rights and aid to the poor. The North Carolina Fund came up short in its battle against poverty, but its story continues to be a source of inspiration and instruction for new generations of Americans.

n this provocative book, Abigail Thernstrom argues that southern resistance to black political power began a process by which the act was radically revised both for good and ill. Congress, the courts, and the Justice Department altered the statute to ensure the election of blacks and Hispanics to legislative bodies ranging from school boards and county councils to the U.S. Congress.

First Published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Explores the place of labor in children's lives and child development. By incorporating recent theoretical advances in childhood studies and in child development, the authors argue for the need to re-think assumptions that underlie current policies on child labor. Proposes a new approach to promote the well-being, development, and human rights of working children. From publisher description.