Inclusive Curriculum

This article reviews examples of what the authors call "critical trusts and estates scholarship " and considers how the development and enforcement of current laws of wills, trusts and estates negatively impacts historically disempowered peoples.

This article posits that racial identity and property are deeply interrelated concepts. Professor Harris traces the origins of whiteness as property in the parallel systems of domination of Black and Native American peoples out of which were created racially contingent forms of property and property rights. The author then examines how the concept of whiteness as property persists in current perceptions of racial identity, in the law's misperception of group identity and in the Court's reasoning and decisions in the arena of affirmative action. The author concludes that distortions in affirmative action doctrine can only be addressed by confronting and exposing the property interest in whiteness and by acknowledging the distributive justification and function of affirmative action as central to that task.

This case is a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that held that private citizens could not purchase lands from Native Americans. The Court reasoned that since the federal government now controls the land, the Indians have only a “right of occupancy” and hold no title to the land. The case introduces the "nemo dat" principle and "dominion by discovery," and demonstrates the racist origins of Federal Indian Policy during the Manifest Destiny Era.

This article describes the cases and materials the author uses in his first-year property class to introduce students to a career-long awareness of the relationship between property law and social justice. The author examines the various casebooks available and notes throughout the article the degree to which they provide cases and other materials that emphasize the relationship between property law and social justice.

This episode, "Housing's Racial History," features Lisa Rice, president and CEO of the National Fair Housing Alliance in Washington, DC. This episode discusses how in order to make sense of the current discussion of affordable housing in cities or in suburbs, it is necessary to understand the history of discrimination that has been part and parcel of US housing policy and programs.

This article surveys social science research on racial segregation, integration, and the emerging phenomenon of all-black, middle-class suburban enclaves and offers some surprising insights. Part I presents an overview of black suburbanization and the status of residential integration in the United States. Part II examines why middle-class black suburbs are likely to fall short of the suburban ideal. Accepting the inevitability of residential segregation of African-Americans, Part III presents the author's post-integrationist vision for metropolitan America.

This case ruled that individuals do not have rights to a share in profits earned from research performed on their bodily materials. In its decision, the Supreme Court of California ruled that cancer patient John L. Moore did not have personal property rights to samples or fluids that his physicians took from his body for research purposes. Moore created the precedent in California that although physicians are required to disclose their research interests to their patients, patients do not have property-related claims to any samples that their physicians take from their body.

In this YouTube video, Gene Demby of NPR’s Code Switch explains why neighborhoods are still so segregated today.

In this YouTube video, VICE's Alzo Slade explores the vulnerability of black landowners in the South as the U.S. continues to grapple with its history of racial discrimination. The video features Thomas Mitchell, Professor of Law, at Texas A&M University, and is an accessible, engaging, and modern introduction to land appropriation.