Weatherspoon’s Latest Article on African-American Males and the Justice System Published by Texas Wesleyan

December 11, 2007

Capital University Law School Professor Floyd Weatherspoon’s article, The Mass Incarceration of African-American Males: A Return to Institutionalized Slavery, Oppression, and Disenfranchisement of Constitutional Rights, was recently published in volume 13 of the Texas Wesleyan Law Review.

Weatherspoon presented the article in 2006 in England at an international conference sponsored by the University of Gloucestershire ( England) and Texas Wesleyan Law School. In the article, Weatherspoon reveals how the American justice system has had a devastating impact on the social and economic status of African-American males and he also explores how the mass incarceration of African-American males is a system of involuntary servitude for life, similar to the institution of slavery.

“The disproportionate number of young African-American males incarcerated is the result of a discriminatory sentencing policy and a criminal justice system which targets black males for punishment and incarceration,” says Weatherspoon.

Weatherspoon is a recognized authority on African-American males and the justice system. His interest and concern about how the justice system negatively impacts African-American males has led to a number of publications, including the book African-American Males and the Law (University Press of America, 1998), and a law school seminar on African American Males and the Law, one of the first courses taught at a law school specifically on how the justice system impacts African-American males.

Professor Weatherspoon can be reached at (614) 236-6531 or by e-mail at fweatherspoon@law.capital.edu. For links to some of his articles written on black males, including “ Racial Profiling of African-American Males: Stopped, Searched and Stripped of Constitutional Protection,” 38 John Marshall Law Review 439 (2004) and “ Ending Racial Profiling of African-Americans in the Selective Enforcement of Laws: In Search of Viable Remedies,” 65 University of Pittsburgh Law Review 4 (2004), see his web page at: users.law.capital.edu/fweatherspoon/.