Book Reviews : Charles J. McClain, In Search of Eguality: The Chinese Struggle Against Discrimination in Niteteenth-Cetury America (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1994), x, 358 pp. Cloth
Abstract
Book ReviewsCharles J. McClain, In Search of Eguality: The Chinese Struggle Against Discrimination in Niteteenth-Cetury America (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1994), x, 358 pp. Cloth SAGE Publications, Inc.1996DOI: 10.1177/002190969603100319 Katy J. Harriger Wake Forest University Winston-Salem, NC, U.S.A. When one thinks about legal battles for equality in American history, the struggle of African-Americans immediately comes to mind. Certainly, the twentieth century litigation strategy of the NAACP, which brought about the gradual dismantlement of the state-imposed apartheid of American society, stands in the literature of constitutional history as the premier example of a minority group using the independent judiciary to fight oppressive legislative efforts supported by a hostile majority. In fact, the judicial activism on behalf of African-Americans in the twentieth century has been identified as a critical development in the role of the judiciary, the presumption being that prior to that time, judges did not play the role of defender of minority rights. Through his examination of the struggle of Chinese immigrants in California during the nineteenth century, Charles J. McClain offers us an important and fascinating reminder that other groups have also been the target of legal persecution in American history and that the legal