An Aristocracy of Color

As historian D. Michael Bottoms shows in An Aristocracy of Color, many white Californians saw in this and other Reconstruction legislation a threat to the fragile racial hierarchy they had imposed on the state's legal system during the 1850s. But nonwhite Californians -- blacks and Chinese in particular -- recognized an unprecedented opportunity to reshape the state's race relations. Drawing on court records, political debates, and eyewitness accounts, Bottoms brings to life the monumental battle that followed.