The journal was established in Spring 1966 by students Spencer H. Boyer (later Professor and Associate Dean at Howard Law School), Joseph Meissner, and Frank Parker in the wake of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the
Voting Rights Act of 1965. The funds for the establishing the journal, a figure of $600 as requested by Boyer, were granted after a short meeting with Harvard Law School Dean Ervin Griswold. In their first issue the editors of the new publication wrote that the review "is an emblem and achievement of the collaboration" between the Harvard Civil Liberties Research Service, the Law Students Civil Rights Research Council, and the Harvard Civil Rights Committee, three newly formed organizations that had recently noticed the dearth of legal material on civil rights: In its 35th anniversary issue, legal academic
Morton Horowitz wrote that the journal "seeks to catalyze progressive thought and dialogue through publishing innovative legal scholarship from various perspectives and in diverse fields of study." ==Notable alumni==