MAKING THE CASE FOR JUSTICE: An Advocate's Journey in Social, Criminal and Education Justice Reform (Book Abstract Overview)

MAKING THE CASE FOR JUSTICE by Hakim Nathaniel Crampton

An Abstract Overview

We often hear stories about people who experienced some of the worst tragedies at the hands of our civic and social systems, and how they courageously fought back to overcome the injustices they both witnessed happening to others while simultaneously living through them also. In Making The Case For Justice, national education justice consultant Hakim Crampton captures his thoughts and real time advocacy efforts within his community in a series of thought provoking essays and research articles that span well over 25 years.

The book opens up with a gripping summary of Hakim's own personal fight for exoneration for a 1991 wrongful arrest and murder conviction as he advocates for reform in law enforcement investigative practices and calling for accountability for prosecutorial misconduct. Hakim then presents a series of 21 essays that boldly challenges both systems of oppression and biased institutional practices within the criminal legal system, the public education sector, and local civic governance.

Drawn from his lived experience of juvenile and adult carceral imprisonment and generational community violence, Hakim is able to capture the nuances and complexities of issues confronting black America with emphasis on the inequities embedded within the social fabric that makes up the institutional culture of the United States. To achieve this Hakim tackles some topics as a thesis and provides supporting source references, and other topics as a personal reflection essay speaking from lived experience.

In Making a Case for Justice, readers will discover critical chapter titles of immense interests to advocates and social scientists alike, with topic titles such as:

America's Wrongly Incarcerated, The Minority Report, Are Young Black Males of Color an Endangered Species, What is the School-to-Prison Pipeline, A Fresh Look at Ebonics, Education is the Key, Understanding the Sociological Landscape of Black Youth, Welcome to the Housing and Urban Development, Upward Mobility in a Race Driven Class Society, Redefining the Narrative, Improving Educational Outcomes for Males of Color, The Bottom 50 Report, The Urgency of Systems Change, Does Jail Expansion Mean Safer Communities, Closing the Achievement Gap, Paying a Debt to Society, Building a New Cultural Perspective, Opportunities and Obstacles in Education, Reading the African American Horror-Scope, Rebuilding the Black Male Image, Dieting and Health Perspectives for Black Americans, and the Berlin Wall of Racism.

While being an engaging read of immense interest to social justice activists, this book will also serve to highlight an inside look into an advocate's thoughts, perspectives and philosophical approach to redressing social injustices that harm one's own community.