Power Concedes Nothing: One Woman's Quest for Social Justice in America, from the Courtroom to the Kill Zones (Hardcover)
Description
From one of America’s most influential civil rights attorneys, Power Concedes Nothing is a hard-hitting memoir chronicling a fiercely dedicated woman’s quest to win the first of all human rights: freedom from violence.
CONNIE RICE has taken on school and bus systems, Death Row, the states of Mississippi and California, and the Los Angeles Police Department—and won. Not just in court, where she vindicated major civil rights cases, but also on the streets and in prisons, where she spearheaded campaigns to reduce gang violence. Los Angeles magazine concluded that Connie’s work “has picked up where Clarence Darrow left off.”
In her extraordinary memoir, Rice chronicles her odyssey, the people who inspired her, and the teams she forged with allies and former foes. She counts among her partners LAPD police chiefs William Bratton and Charlie Beck, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, and gang interventionists such as Darren “Bo” Taylor.
Rice—second cousin of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice—writes of being the great-granddaughter of former slaves and slave owners who prized the aggressive pursuit of knowledge. Even her U.S. Air Force childhood, with seventeen moves across three continents, could not disrupt this family legacy of voracious accomplishment.
After joining the NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s West Coast office in 1990, Rice left the courtroom and took to the streets of the “kill zones” in the wake of the cataclysmic LAPD beating of Rodney King in 1991. What she learned from the invisible poor of underground Los Angeles would change her mission forever.
In her trek through gangland, Rice discovers that if you bury the underclass, you imperil yourself—a warning that her allies from law enforcement and the military strongly endorse.
Provocative and passionate, studded with dramatic episodes from the trenches of impact litigation and America’s most dangerous neighborhoods, Power Concedes Nothing is the story of an indomitable woman who knows that, without a demand, power concedes nothing.
About the Author
Connie Rice is renowned for her unconventional approaches to tackling problems of inequity and exclusion. Rice has received more than 50 major awards for her leadership of diverse coalitions, and her non-traditional approaches to litigating major cases involving police misconduct, employment discrimination and fair public resource allocation. She successfully co-litigated class-action, civil rights cases winning more than $1.6 billion in policy changes and remedies during her nine year tenure in the Los Angeles office of the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF). One of the founders of The Advancement Project, Rice is a graduate of Harvard College and the New York University School of Law.
Praise for Power Concedes Nothing: One Woman's Quest for Social Justice in America, from the Courtroom to the Kill Zones…
"[A] remarkable journey.... Open and insightful.... Readers will be appalled by the evils Rice fights, but astounded by the energy and intelligence she brings to the battle."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Connie Rice is one of the few great progressive figures and voices whose love of poor people is visceral and whose commitment to justice is unstoppable. Don’t miss this powerful story of a grand prophetic witness!”--Cornel West, Princeton University
"A compelling story of a life dedicated to creating positive and lasting change in two of the most significant issues facing our society, civil rights and gang violence. There is nobody in America today who has brought so much positive change to these two issues than Connie.... Anyone who cares about democracy and its true potential needs to read this book. "--William J. Bratton, Former Chief-LAPD, Former Commissioner-NYPD
"Writing with conviction, Connie Rice vividly portrays her life’s work and her unyielding commitment to our shared family values— the power of education, a dedication to improving the lives of others and a belief that it does not matter where you came from; it matters where you are going."--Condoleezza Rice, Former U.S. Secretary of State
"Essential reading for civic leaders, soldiers and statesmen alike. One of our most thoughtful and dynamic leaders lays out how a holistic approach is required to address some of our nation's most complex problems."--Gen. (Ret.) Stanley A. McChrystal
“Connie Rice is the most brilliant legal mind I’ve encountered in my twenty-year broadcast history. I hang on her every word. She concedes nothing without a demand--never has and never will.”--Tavis Smiley
"Genuinely compelling.... [An] inspiring, passionate story."--Kirkus
"This powerful memoir offers vivid accounts of the fight for social justice from the streets to the courtroom. An excellent read."--Booklist
"A big, important story ... of [Rice's] passion, her history, her legal record and her connection to both the powerful and the underprivileged in Los Angeles."--Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times
