No discussion about justice in the American workplace can ignore two sets of laws: labor law as set forth in the National Labor Relations Act and civil rights/anti-discrimination law as written in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. These laws define workers' rights, but they also reflect the shape of power in society, and they can determine labor and management strategies. Their texts were written by lawmakers, but in another sense, they were written in the streets and workplaces during turbulent times. Class and racial biases exist in, and are reproduced by the laws and their practices. How is their history important? What social movements and conditions brought the National Labor Relations Act and the Civil Rights Act into being? How did the struggles at their roots shape the laws' forms? How do they affect the workplace today? Are they effective, and for whom? This class will look at civil rights and labor legislation through the lenses of history and sociology, from perspectives in legal studies and labor studies. We will examine some of the controversies surrounding these laws today -- around issues like union organizing, affirmative action and employment discrimination. Students will become acquainted with the critiques developed by scholars in Critical Race Theory and Critical Legal Studies, which help us think about power in the larger society and alternative possibilities for justice.