A New Book — March 2027
Injustice of the Peace
Power, Poverty, and America's Eviction Courts
Power, Poverty, and America's Eviction Courts
From the courtrooms of the wealthy and powerful to the living rooms of the impoverished and forgotten, Injustice of the Peace tells the story of poverty in America through the lens of a legal system that has become more of a tool of the wealthy than a bastion of truth and justice.
When attorney Mark Melton founded the Dallas Eviction Advocacy Center in 2020, he saw it as a way to give back to his community as a person who knew firsthand how devastating eviction and poverty could be. He didn't anticipate the fight for fair housing to be so hard — or for the work to transform his life. What began as a pro-bono project to ease the burdens of his evicted neighbors during the pandemic quickly grew into one of the largest and most effective tenant defense organizations in the United States. In Injustice of the Peace, Melton tells the story of that movement, painting an affecting picture of the housing crisis and the broken systems of power that continue to manufacture it.
Told through first-hand accounts of Dallas residents — from single mothers working tirelessly to make ends meet, to elderly couples living in units with no reliable electricity or hot water, to entire communities haunted by histories of redlining and illegal repossession — Injustice of the Peace explores the racial, economic, legal, and social strings in the web of injustice that make the rich richer and the poor, poorer. What emerges is a deeply moving, accessible roadmap to America's housing crisis and a rallying cry for a more compassionate, humane future.
The pandemic receded, but the things I saw during it didn't. Some nights I want nothing more than to close the door, pour a drink, and let other people's lives go back to being other people's lives. It would be easy. I could do it tomorrow.
But the faces won't stay at a distance. I can't pretend they weren't real. That pinch in the corners of their eyes when they realize they're giving a tell; when you see the water well up, resting on the top of their lower eyelid just before a tear forms to fall down their cheek. They turn their head as they dry their eyes in a poorly concealed effort to hide their shame. And I oblige them. I pretend I don't see so they can salvage their dignity.
Two documentary features about the eviction-defense work at the heart of the book.
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