New Book, a Biography of Charles Sumner, was Recently Published by a CCLS Alumnus
A landmark biography of Charles Sumner, the unsung hero of the American Civil War and Reconstruction.
Zaakir Tameez (Law and Economics LLM, 2021) has recently written a book, a biography of Charles Sumner. Charles Sumner is mainly known as the abolitionist statesman who suffered a brutal caning on the Senate floor. This violent episode has obscured his status as the most passionate champion of equal rights and multiracial democracy of his time. A friend of Alexis de Tocqueville, an ally of Frederick Douglass, and an adviser to Abraham Lincoln, Sumner helped the Union win the Civil War and ordain the Emancipation Proclamation, the Thirteenth Amendment, the Freedmen’s Bureau, and the Civil Rights Act of 1875.
In a comprehensive but fast-paced narrative, Zaakir Tameez presents Sumner as one of America’s forgotten founding fathers. He argues that Sumner was a gay man and explores his critical partnerships with Black lawyers and civil rights leaders.
An extraordinary achievement of historical and constitutional scholarship, Charles Sumner brings back to life one of America’s most inspiring statesmen, whose formidable ideas touch on questions of race, democracy, and constitutional law.
To find out more about the book and the author himself, as well as where to purchase it, please see Zaakir’s website.
ZAAKIR TAMEEZ: Author, Charles Sumner | Conscience of a Nation