The Long Road To Justice

Justice, or the lack of it, has caused many people many problems, and how to correct injustice has always been a problem for the human race. There was a Bible writer, Jeremiah, who described it as "the heart is treacherous and who can know it?" Most of us have had the misfortune of being a victim of this, and because of ignorance and various other causes have often suffered physically and mentally, sometimes for a long time. This is the theme of this book, a long road and a long time . . . sometimes.

Whereas This Fist Called My Heart, the first Peter McLaren reader (2016), offers a window into the development and reorientation of McLaren’s work over time, Tracks to Infinity emphasizes the significance of orientation in his contemporary work. McLaren’s earlier work was oriented toward the idea of a contradictory postmodern subjectivity located outside the increasingly fragmented, indeterminate late capitalist society. If the concept of the critical subject or change agent is perceived to be simultaneously located both inside and outside of the world that exists, however mundane, it begins to appear as a utopian or idealist construction. While discourse is indeed important, locating the revolutionary potential exclusively within the abstract realm of language or the sign can lead to a disconnected relationship with the concreteness of everyday struggle. As the fog of the disembodied, postmodern subject began to lift, McLaren reoriented his engagement with and gaze toward the concrete value-creating laborer as the active agent of revolutionary educations’ process of becoming—collectively becoming something other than abstract labor. This volume is filled with deep engagements with the concreteness of lived experience juxtaposed next to the bourgeois propaganda of the capitalist class political establishment as manifested in the Trump era. Praise for Tracks to Infinity... “There is no masking the profound legacy of Peter McLaren for those of us honored to be counted among his many students and friends. To me, his revolutionary teachings amount to a raging bonfire of praxis for the cognitively weary...and while fire's nature burns and is dangerously beyond our control, historically speaking, fire is also the Promethean foundation stone for the humanization of the world. Herein, then, is a truly infernal collection of writing and ideas on education and politics—or perhaps just enough to thaw the numerous minds and hearts that have grown deadly cold from the icy spiritual hell that is our time of masterful warfare, an age when the beloved community is daily being stripped naked, shot and then laid out on a press table like a macabre photograph of the supposedly dead Ché.” Richard Kahn Core Faculty in Education, Antioch University, Los Angeles “Peter McLaren is one of the most innovative and resourceful advocates of critical pedagogy originating from Gramsci and Freire. What distinguishes his work is the nuanced dialectical interweaving of national/ethnic struggles and global imperialist hegemony, exposing the limits of transnationalist-cosmopolitanist postmodernism (eliding the reality of finance capitalism) and covertly racialized globalism functioning as a decoy for white supremacy. This volume represents cuttingedge praxis in historical-materialist research and application.” E. San Juan, Jr. Fellow of the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas “Huerta-Charles, Marc Pruyn & Curry S. Malott have given birth to Volume II of THE first ever Reader of Peter McLaren’s expansive works. As a leading scholar and activist of our time, this groundbreaking text showcases a range of his punchy insights into multi-culturalism, imperialism, methodology and revolution. The book is unrivalled for anybody wanting to understand education and society, and do something serious about its ills.” Alpesh Maisuria Senior Lecturer in Education Studies, University of East London Co-Deputy Editor, Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies Co-Convener , Marxism and Education: Renewing Dialogues (MERD) Seminar Series

An examination of how some legal issues are losing cases - but that's okay because advances are still possible.

He's lived a lie for sixteen years.His mother murdered, his father convicted, Texas State Trooper David Harper started over. Now, truth is rising to the surface. It won't be contained.The conviction overturned, David has to come clean with everyone-especially CJ, his wife of five months. It's time for truth. It's time to deal with this gnawing need for revenge?his mother deserves justice.Working behind the scenes, David and CJ stir the pot. A den of snakes comes out striking. Another murder is committed. His father is next on the list. David races against the clock to catch a killer intent on silencing the only family he has left.

“Like Texas’s founding fathers, Sweatt fearlessly faced evil, and made Texas a better place. His story is our story, and Gary Lavergne tells it well.” –Paul Begala, political contributor, CNN Winner of the Coral Horton Tullis Prize for Best Book of Texas History by the Texas State Historical Association Winner of the Carr P. Collins Award for Best Work of Non-fiction by the Texas Institute of Letters On February 26, 1946, an African American from Houston applied for admission to the University of Texas School of Law. Although he met all of the school’s academic qualifications, Heman Marion Sweatt was denied admission because he was black. He challenged the university’s decision in court, and the resulting case, Sweatt v. Painter, went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in Sweatt’s favor. In this engrossing, well-researched book, Gary M. Lavergne tells the fascinating story of Heman Sweatt’s struggle for justice and how it became a milestone for the civil rights movement. He reveals that Sweatt was a central player in a master plan conceived by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for ending racial segregation in the United States. Lavergne masterfully describes how the NAACP used the Sweatt case to practically invalidate the “separate but equal” doctrine that had undergirded segregated education for decades. He also shows how the Sweatt case advanced the career of Thurgood Marshall, whose advocacy of Sweatt taught him valuable lessons that he used to win the Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954 and ultimately led to his becoming the first black Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.

How many more college students will die before CJ stops the deadly menace?Moonshine and fentanyl are wreaking havoc on her campus. One student already paid the ultimate price. As assistant chief of police, it's up to CJ to rid the campus of the deadly threat. In the meantime, the body count goes up in nearby communities.While CJ and her team work to discover the source of the illicit substances, another body is found. The murder points to a calculating drug lord from CJ's past? and he plays for keeps. The name that's haunted her dreams ignites her worst fears. This time his deadly reign must end, but will the price be more than CJ's willing to pay?

“A searing and emotionally gripping account of a young black girl growing up to become a strong black woman during the most difficult time of racial segregation.”—Professor Charles Ogletree, Harvard Law School “Provides important context for an important moment in America’s history.”—Associated Press When fourteen-year-old Carlotta Walls walked up the stairs of Little Rock Central High School on September 25, 1957, she and eight other black students only wanted to make it to class. But the journey of the “Little Rock Nine,” as they came to be known, would lead the nation on an even longer and much more turbulent path, one that would challenge prevailing attitudes, break down barriers, and forever change the landscape of America. For Carlotta and the eight other children, simply getting through the door of this admired academic institution involved angry mobs, racist elected officials, and intervention by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was forced to send in the 101st Airborne to escort the Nine into the building. But entry was simply the first of many trials. Breaking her silence at last and sharing her story for the first time, Carlotta Walls has written an engrossing memoir that is a testament not only to the power of a single person to make a difference but also to the sacrifices made by families and communities that found themselves a part of history.