Secret Life of Bees: Voting Rights in America

The Voting Rights War by Gloria J. Browne-Marshall; Rev. C. T. Vivian (Foreword by) The Voting Rights War tells the story of the courageous struggle to achieve voting equality through more than one hundred years of work by the NAACP at the Supreme Court. Readers take the journey for voting rights from slavery to the Plessy v. Ferguson case that legalized segregation in 1896 through today's conflicts around voter suppression. The NAACP brought important cases to the Supreme Court that challenged obstacles to voting: grandfather clauses, all-White primaries, literacy tests, gerrymandering, vote dilution, felony disenfranchisement, and photo identification laws. This book highlights the challenges facing American voters, especially African Americans, the brave work of NAACP members, and the often contentious relationship between the NAACP and the Supreme Court. This book shows the human price paid for the right to vote and the intellectual stamina needed for each legal battle. The Voting Rights War follows conflicts on the ground and in the courtroom, from post-slavery voting rights and the formation of the NAACP to its ongoing work to gain a basic right guaranteed to every citizen. Whether through litigation, lobbying, or protest, the NAACP continues to play an unprecedented role in the battle for voting equality in America, fighting against prison gerrymandering, racial redistricting, the gutting of the Voting Rights Act, and more. The Voting Rights War highlights the NAACP's powerful contribution and legacy.

The Rise and Fall of the Voting Rights Act by Charles S. Bullock; Keith Gaddie; Justin J. Wert On June 25, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Shelby County v. Holder, invalidating a key provision of voting rights law. The decision--the culmination of an eight-year battle over the power of Congress to regulate state conduct of elections--marked the closing of a chapter in American politics. That chapter had opened a century earlier in the case of Guinn v. United States, which ushered in national efforts to knock down racial barriers to the ballot. A detailed and timely history, The Rise and Fall of the Voting Rights Act analyzes changing legislation and the future of voting rights in the United States. In tracing the development of the Voting Rights Act from its inception, Charles S. Bullock III, Ronald Keith Gaddie, and Justin J. Wert begin by exploring the political and legal aspects of the Jim Crow electoral regime. Detailing both the subsequent struggle to enact the law and its impact, they explain why the Voting Rights Act was necessary. The authors draw on court cases and election data to bring their discussion to the present with an examination of the 2006 revision and renewal of the act, and its role in shaping the southern political environment in the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, when Barack Obama was chosen. Bullock, Gaddie, and Wert go on to closely evaluate the 2013 Shelby County decision, describing how the ideological makeup of the Supreme Court created an appellate environment that made the act ripe for a challenge. Rigorous in its scholarship and thoroughly readable, this book goes beyond history and analysis to provide compelling and much-needed insight into the ways voting rights legislation has shaped the United States. The Rise and Fall of the Voting Rights Act illuminates the historical roots--and the human consequences--of a critical chapter in U.S. legal history.

Voting Rights under Fire by Donathan L. Brown; Michael L. Clemons With the increasing demands for changes in how we vote, the authors analyze the complications of race tied to these proposed policies through historical and contemporary challenges. Why does race play such a discursive role when it comes to the "right to vote"? Lawmakers are continuing to propose changes to voting rights policies that directly impact African Americans and the emerging Latino electorate. Ranging from issues like voter identification laws, accusations of voter fraud, and voting rights for convicted felons, this single-volume provides an in-depth analysis regarding the various racial dimensions embedded in cases of public policy. By highlighting the origination and evolution of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Voting Rights under Fire: The Continuing Struggle for People of Color demonstrates the still-prevalent issues around voting and people of color. This work will provide readers an accessible, interdisciplinary book that interconnects past and present issues involving political debates, public policy, and court decisions pertaining to race and voting rights in America.

Much Sound and Fury, or the New Jim Crow? by Michael A. Smith (Editor) Since 2003, several US states have passed new laws that complicate the process of voter registration and voting. Framed as controls on voter fraud, the laws have spawned controversy in both the courts and public opinion, the latter falling along a sharp partisan divide. Much Sound and Fury, or the New Jim Crow? offers a scholarly analysis, not of the intent but rather the impact of these laws. Beginning with a historical overview of the expanding and contracting right to vote, particularly regarding its impact on African Americans, subsequent chapters use quantitative analysis to analyze the impact of identification requirement laws, proof-of-citizenship requirements, felony disenfranchisement, and gerrymandering. Before 2020, the impact of the laws leaned slightly negative but was mixed. More recent developments, however, point to a far more alarming implication--widespread belief in factually-baseless allegations of fraud, which undermines Americans' trust and faith in our constitutional democracy; these allegations reached a crescendo in 2021 as a violent mob seized the US Capitol. The book concludes with an afterword on the 2020 elections and their aftermath.

Voting Rights in America by Bridgett A. King (Editor) Through primary sources, this volume examines the history, evolution, and major contemporary controversies associated with voting rights in the United States, devoting particular attention to demographic groups including women, young people, people of color, and poor people. Voting is often described as the central pillar of American democracy. Yet at various points in the history of the United States, the franchise was kept away from people without landholdings, women, black people, and young members of the armed forces who were nonetheless deemed old enough to risk their lives in the defense of their nation. Even today, many observers contend that the right to vote is being eroded by a pernicious combination of political and social factors. This work uses primary sources, in concert with broad, context-setting historical overviews and an illuminating introduction to each document, to examine the full scope and importance of the struggle for voting rights in America. Coverage ranges from major historical landmarks such as women's suffrage, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the heavily contested Bush-Gore presidential election of 2000 to documents that examine current controversies about alleged voter suppression, claims of voter fraud, Russian interference in American elections, and the impact of Supreme Court decisions past and present on the constitutional right to vote.

Ballot Blocked by Jesse H. Rhodes Voting rights are a perennial topic in American politics. Recent elections and the Supreme Court's decision in Shelby County v. Holder, which struck down key enforcement provisions in the Voting Rights Act (VRA), have only placed further emphasis on the debate over voter disenfranchaisement. Over the past five decades, both Democrats and Republicans in Congress have consistently voted to expand the protections offered to vulnerable voters by the Voting Rights Act. And yet, the administration of the VRA has become more fragmented and judicial interpretation of its terms has become much less generous. Why have Republicans consistently adopted administrative and judicial decisions that undermine legislation they repeatedly endorse? Ballot Blocked shows how the divergent trajectories of legislation, administration, and judicial interpretation in voting rights policymaking derive largely from efforts by conservative politicians to narrow the scope of federal enforcement while at the same time preserving their public reputations as supporters of racial equality and minority voting rights. Jesse H. Rhodes argues that conservatives adopt a paradoxical strategy in which they acquiesce to expansive voting rights protections in Congress (where decisions are visible and easily traceable) while simultaneously narrowing the scope of federal enforcement via administrative and judicial maneuvers (which are less visible and harder to trace). Over time, the repeated execution of this strategy has enabled a conservative Supreme Court to exercise preponderant influence over the scope of federal enforcement.