Content area
Full text
Note: Narrative storytelling is a staple of legal jurisprudence. The Case of the Speluncean Explorers by Lon Fuller and The Space Traders by Derrick Bell are two of the most well-known and celebrated legal stories.2 The Soul Savers parable that follows pays tribute to Professor Bell's prescient, apocalyptic racial tale. Professor Bell, a founding member of Critical Race Theory, wrote The Space Traders to instigate discussions about America's deeply rooted entanglements with race and racism. The Soul Savers is offered as an attempt to follow in Professor Bell's narrative footsteps by raising and pondering new and old frameworks about the rule of law and racial progress. The year 2020 marks the thirty-year anniversary of Bell's initial iteration of the Space Traders tale.
The Call
On June 19, 2047, the call was made. The drums were heard by anyone considered to be Black according to the one-drop rule.4 The beating drums meant it was time to go underground. It was for the best. They were over 15 million people strong. When they heard the drum calls, they knew it was their summons. Each family had been assigned a safe space: a restaurant, a hotel, a car, an abandoned building, a store, a trailer, an office. Some were lucky enough to get a room in a house.
Black people began to disappear themselves.5 The masses began traveling to their assigned safe spaces in the secret, prearranged order. They took what they could carry. Electronic devices were not allowed. Most bags held clothing, toiletries, and a few small cherished items, such as old photographs, jewelry, and books. They didn't know when or if they would return.
Some Black people who questioned the wisdom of the call to go underground left the country. Some escaped on foot and some drove, rode buses, or took planes to lands north of New York and Washington, south of Florida, and west of California. The average Black person could not afford to escape the United States. Most Black people were still trying to make a dollar out of fifteen cents.6 Travel costs for one person, let alone an entire family, sounded like a cruel proposition. Like those New Orleanians in the Ninth Ward who were instructed to evacuate in advance of Hurricane Katrina.7...