Lawyer, activist, teacher, writer: for over forty years, Derrick Bell has provoked his critics and challenged his readers with uncompromising candor and progressive views on race and class in America. A founder of Critical Race Theory and pioneer of the use of allegorical stories as tools of analysis, Bell's extraordinary work shatters conventional legal orthodoxies and turns comfortable majoritarian myths inside out. While his writing spans several decades and addresses a myriad of topics, it has never been collected in a single volume until now. Edited with an extensive introduction by leading critical race theorists Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, The Derrick Bell Reader consists of fifteen thematic chapters that reflect the tremendous breadth of issues that Bell has grappled with over his phenomenal career, including affirmative action, black nationalism, and legal education and ethics. Some pieces are written in elegant expository prose, such as meditations on the impact of the Brown v. Board of Education decision; others in the narrative form for which Bell is famous, particularly his signature Geneva Crenshaw chronicles.
The book also includes never before published material by Bell, including poetry and the startling letter of resignation he submitted to the dean of Harvard Law School in protest of the lack of women of color on the faculty. Together, the selections offer the most complete collection of Derrick Bell's writing available today.