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Negro Blood In His Veins: The Development And Disappearance Of The Doctrine Of Defamation Per Se By Racial Misidentification In The American South, Samuel L. Brenner
Negro Blood In His Veins: The Development And Disappearance Of The Doctrine Of Defamation Per Se By Racial Misidentification In The American South, Samuel L. Brenner
Samuel L Brenner
Between the late eighteenth century and the middle of the twentieth century, a number of states in the American South and West (and at least one in the North) recognized some form of the doctrine of defamation per se by racial misidentification (DPSRM). By making a claim under this doctrine, white plaintiffs could recover from defendants who had falsely or mistakenly identified the plaintiffs as “colored,” “negro,” or the like, even absent proof of damages. By the early twentieth century, the doctrine appeared both powerful and monolithic in the Southern states, with courts routinely applying what appeared to be the …