In 1961, the year Barack Obama was born, most southern blacks were still disfranchised—unable to enjoy the fundamental right that ensures the preservation of all other rights. By the end of the 19th century they had been driven from the polls and their voices ruthlessly silenced, and in 1940 an appalling 97% of the 5 million southern blacks of voting age were still denied the vote. That figure did drop dramatically over the next two decades, but 10 years after the Supreme Court had signaled the end of Jim Crow in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, the majority of blacks remained unable to cast a ballot in almost every southern state.
The Voting Rights Act’s Murky Legal Landscape
The Voting Rights Act’s Murky Legal Landscape
Vol. 36 No. 2
By
Abigail Thernstrom is vice-chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and an adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. This work is heavily drawn from Redistricting in Today’s Shifting Racial Landscape, 23 Stan. L. & Pol’y Rev. 373 (2012), and an article posted September 4, 2012, on Rick Hasen’s Electionlawblog.org at http://electionlawblog.org/?p=39581.
