Voting rights--and wrongs : the elusive quest for racially fair elections

Resource Information

The work Voting rights--and wrongs : the elusive quest for racially fair elections represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in DC Public Library System. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Voting rights--and wrongs : the elusive quest for racially fair elections

Title remainder

the elusive quest for racially fair elections

Statement of responsibility

Abigail Thernstrom

Creator

• Thernstrom, Abigail M., 1936-

Subject

• African Americans -- Suffrage
• Election law
• Election law -- United States
• Elections
• African Americans -- Suffrage
• United States
• Voting
• Voting -- United States
• Elections -- United States

Language

eng

Summary

"The 1965 Voting Rights Act is the crown jewel of American civil rights legislation. Its passage marked the death knell of the Jim Crow South. But that was the beginning, not the end, of an important debate on race and representation in American democracy. When is the distribution of political power racially fair? Who counts as a representative of black and Hispanic interests? How we answer such questions shapes our politics and public policy in profound but often unrecognized ways." "The act's Original aim was Simple: Give African Americans the same political opportunity enjoyed by other citizens - the chance to vote, form political coalitions, and elect the candidates of their choice. But in the racist South, it soon became clear that access to the ballot would not, by itself, provide the political opportunity the statute promised. Most southern whites were unwilling to vote for black candidates, and southern states were ready to alter electoral systems to maintain white supremacy." "In this provocative book, Abigail Thernstrom argues that southern resistance to black political power began a process by which the act was radically revised both for good and ill. Congress, the courts, and the Justice Department altered the statute to ensure the election of blacks and Hispanics to legislative bodies ranging from school boards and county councils to the U.S. Congress. Proportional racial representation - equality of results rather than mere equal opportunity - became the revised aim of the act. Blacks came to be treated as politically different - entitled to inequality in the form of a unique political privilege." "Majority-minority districts that reserved seats for blacks and Hispanics succeeded in integrating southern politics. By now, however, those districts may perversely limit the potential power of black officeholders. "Max-black" districts typically elect candidates to the left of most voters; those officeholders rarely run in majority-white settings. Such race-conscious districting discourages the development of centrist, "post-racial" candidates like Barack Obama (who was defeated when he stood for Congress in one such district)." "The Voting Rights Act has become a period piece that today serves to keep most black legislators clustered on the sidelines of American politics - precisely the opposite of what its framers intended. A radically revised law would better serve the political interests of all Americans - minority and white voters alike."--BOOK JACKET

Cataloging source

DLC

Dewey number

324.6/208996073

Illustrations

maps

Index

index present

LC call number

JK1924

LC item number

.T47 2009

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography