The Struggle for the Right to Vote
Voting rights in the United States have been a contested issue throughout the history of the country. The Framers of the Consitution left the questions of who should vote and how one should vote to the States (Article I Section 4 of the Constitution), leading in large part to only white males who owned property being allowed to vote. The enfranchisement of African Americans (15th Amendment and the Voting Rights Act), women (19th Amendment), Native Americans (1924 Indian Citizenship Act and the Voting Rights Act), non-English speakers (1975 Amendment to the Voting Rights Act) and citizens between 18 and 21 (26th Amendment) came much later. Gaining the right to vote has been a hard struggle for many. These resources will assist you as you explore the history of one of our most precious rights as citizens.
Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America, by Ari Berman
In this groundbreaking narrative history, Berman charts both the transformation of American democracy under the Voting Rights Act and the counterrevolution that has sought to limit voting rights, from 1965 to the present day.
The Fight to Vote, by Michael Waldman
Waldman takes a look at a crucial American struggle: the drive to define and defend government based on "the consent of the governed." From the beginning, and at every step along the way, as Americans sought the right to vote, others have fought to stop them. This is the first book to trace the full story from the founders' debates to today's challenges.
Down for the Count: Dirty Elections and the Rotten History of Democracy in America, by Andrew Gumbel
This book explores in an accessible, engaging style the tawdry continuing history of votes bought, stolen, suppressed, lost, miscounted, thrown into rivers and litigated up to the Supreme Court in the world's most powerful democracy.
Five Dollars and a Pork Chop Sandwich: Vote Buying and the Corruption of Democracy, by Mary Frances Berry
Berry focuses on forms of corruption including vote buying, vote hauling, the abuse of absentee ballots, and other illegal practices by candidates and their middlemen, often in collusion with local election officials.
Electoral Dysfunction: A Survival Manual for American Voters, by Victoria Bassetti
This book illuminates a broad array of issues, including the Founding Fathers' decision to omit the right to vote from the Constitution and the legal system's patchwork response to this omission to the battle over voter ID; the foul-ups that plague Election Day; contested recounts; partisan officials; and issues with the Electoral College.
Jimmie Lee & James: Two Live, Two Deaths, and the Movement that Changed America, by Steve Fiffer and Adar Cohen
This book tells the story of "Bloody Sunday" when Alabama state troopers attacked peaceful demonstrators marching from Selma to Montgomery. Two people--James Reeb and Jimmie Lee Jackson--died during this event. The national outcry over these two brutal killings ensured the passage of the Voting Rights Act that year.
Women's Suffrage in America: An Eyewitness History, by Elizabeth Frost and Kathryn Cullen-Dupont
This volume addresses the Women's Suffrage Movement in America between 1820 and 1920, during which time leaders like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan Anthony spearheaded reform movements seeking equality for women.
Videos
Sisters of Selma: Bearing Witness for Change
Not For Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony
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