Courts, students are told, will protect minorities' legal rights against popular sentiment and political pressure. But courts can be expected to protect rights only within boundaries shaped in part by popular and political opinion. This suggests that litigation outcomes regarding education rights issues will depend on shifting the policymaking…

Examines the concept of damage imagery (as related to damaged black psyches), which was incorporated into strategies for overturning educational segregation. The article argues for a different interpretation of damage based on race, and it raises questions about the contributions of social science to the collective thinking about race and…