Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., led the black drive for civil rights, but the changes he sought came largely in legal opinions issued by federal judges. Foremost of these was Frank Minis Johnson, Jr., of Montgomery, Alabama, who presided over some of the most emotional hearings and trials of the rights movement—hearings brimming with dramatic and poignant testimony from the black people who cried out for the freedoms that are the legacy of all Americans. Beginning with Judge Johnson’s coming-of-age in the hill country of Winston County, Alabama, this book covers many of his notable cases: the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Freedom Rides, school desegregation, the Selma-to-Montgomery march, and the night-rider slaying of Viola Liuzzo, as well as Johnson’s work for prisoners, women, and the mentally ill. Much of the book is comprised of interviews and direct quotes from Johnson himself, making this recounting of Judge Johnson’s life dynamically autobiographical. Includes a new introduction and afterword by the author, Frank Sikora.

The American legal system is the most significant in the world today, yet until the publication of Fundamentals of American Law there has been no book that provides both the basic rules and the theoretical understanding necessary to comprehend it. This book is not simply the work of a single author, but a collection of especially written essays, done by experts in their fields, all of whom are on the faculty of New York University School of Law, which is recognized as one of the elite law school in America and which offers this book as an element of its unique Global Law School Programme. One of the main advantages to teachers of American Law is that we will be offering a Teacher's Manual to anyone who asks for the book on inspection.

The book shows that postliberal theology, which has learned much from Karl Barth, can remain a promising movement within contemporary theology if it allows itself to be corrected by Barth at some points where it has departed from him.