For most of: “IMPORTANT FROM ALABAMA: The City of Selma—Its Great Military Importance to the Rebels—Its Manufactures of War Materials, Clothing, Salt, &c.—Description by a Resident of the Place,” New York Times, April 5, 1864, nytimes.com/1864/04/05/archives/important-from-alabama-the-city-of-selmaits-great-military.html.
We were two: Peter Baker and Richard Fausset, “Obama, at Selma Memorial, Says, ‘We Know the March Is Not Yet Over,’ ” New York Times, March 7, 2015, nytimes.com/2015/03/08/us/obama-in-selma-for-edmund-pettus-bridge-attack-anniversary.html.
By seven-thirty a.m.: Peter Holley and Juliet Eilperin, “Thousands Descend on Selma to Hear President Obama Mark the 50th Anniversary of ‘Bloody Sunday,’ ” Washington Post, March 7, 2015, washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/03/07/thousands-descend-upon-selma-to-listen-to-president-obama-mark-the-50th-anniversary-of-bloody-sunday/.
And that was: Aamer Madhani and David Jackson, “Obama, Bush, Civil Rights Icons Retrace Selma March,” USA Today, March 8, 2015, usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/03/07/selma-50th-anniversary-bloody-sunday/24552475/.
Congressman John Lewis: Scott Horsley, “Obama in Selma: ‘The Race Is Not Yet Won,’ ” NPR, March 8, 2015, npr.org/2015/03/08/391619519/obama-in-selma-the-race-is-not-yet-won.
So when, on that day: “Jimmie Lee Jackson,” Southern Poverty Law Center, splcenter.org/jimmie-lee-jackson.
In Marion, where: C. G. Gomillion, “The Negro Voter in Alabama,” Journal of Negro Education 26, no. 3 (Summer 1957): 281–82.
Marion is where hundreds: See especially Ari Berman, Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015), 16–18.
At sunset: Sara Bullard, “Jimmie Lee Jackson,” in Free at Last: A History of the Civil Rights Movement and Those Who Died in the Struggle (Montgomery, Ala.: Southern Poverty Law Center, 1989), 72.
He even wrote: Javonte Anderson, “ ‘First Martyr of the Voting Rights Movement’: How a Black Man’s Death in 1965 Changed American History,” USA Today, May 20, 2021.
“They hauled me”: John Herbers and Anne Farris Rosen, Deep South Dispatch: Memoir of a Civil Rights Journalist (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2018), 216.
shot him from just feet away: Ryan Jones, “Who Mourns for Jimmie Lee Jackson?,” National Civil Rights Museum, February 12, 2015, civilrightsmuseum.org/news/posts/who-mourns-for-jimmie-lee-jackson.
Wounded but not: John Fleming, “The Death of Jimmie Lee Jackson,” Anniston Star, March 6, 2005.
A few days later, Jimmie: Civil Rights Division Notice to Close File, May 3, 2021, File No. 144-3-1422, United States Department of Justice, justice.gov/crt/case-document/file/949466/download.
And Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from a Selma, Alabama, Jail,” 1964, as reprinted in David J. Garrow, MLK: An American Legacy: Bearing the Cross, Protest at Selma, and the FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr. (New York: Open Road Media, 2016), 142.
“We are going”: Quoted in Roy Reed, “266 Apply to Vote as Selma Speeds Negro Registration,” New York Times, March 1, 1965.
At Jimmie’s funeral: Javonte Anderson, “ ‘First Martyr of the Voting Rights Movement’: How a Black Man’s Death in 1965 Changed American History,” USA Today, May 20, 2021, usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2021/05/20/george-floyd-jimmie-lee-jackson-murder-led-to-voting-rights-act/7153822002/.
One idea they: David Krajicek, “Long-Awaited Justice in Cop’s Killing of Jimmie Lee Jackson, Whose Death Helped Spark Alabama Civil Rights Marches,” New York Daily News, February 1, 2015, nydailynews.com/news/crime/long-awaited-justice-killing-jimmie-lee-jackson-article-1.2099217.
On March 7: Anderson, “First Martyr.”
“At times history”: Lyndon B. Johnson, “We Shall Overcome,” March 15, 1965, an electronic publication of Voices of Democracy: The U.S. Oratory Project, dir. Shawn J. Perry-Giles (College Park, Md., 2005), voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/johnson-we-shall-overcome-speech-text/.
Watching LBJ’s speech: Robert Caro, “When LBJ Said, ‘We Shall Overcome,’ ” New York Times, August 28, 2008, nytimes.com/2008/08/28/opinion/28iht-edcaro.1.15715378.html.
President Johnson’s administration: Berman, Give Us the Ballot, 41–48.
“He had to die”: Berman, Give Us the Ballot, 28.
Indeed, I added: Eric Holder, “Attorney General Holder Reaffirms Commitment to Voting Rights in Speech to Commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the Selma-to-Montgomery Marches,” United States Department of Justice, March 8, 2015, justice.gov/opa/speech/attorney-general-holder-reaffirms-commitment-voting-rights-speech-commemorate-50th.
After Republicans won: Hannah Klain, Kevin Morris, Max Feldman, and Rebecca Ayala, Waiting to Vote: Racial Disparities in Election Day Experiences (New York: Brennan Center for Justice, 2020).
The motivation behind: Carol Anderson, One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy (New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019), 63.
Across the country: “The Effect of the Voting Rights Act,” Introduction to Federal Voting Rights Laws (United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division Voting Section), archive.epic.org/privacy/voting/register/intro_c.html; Berman, Give Us the Ballot, 37–43.
To Chief Justice John Roberts: Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 529 (2013).
Of course, he had it: Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 529, 32 (2013).
On the very day: “The Effects of Shelby County v. Holder,” Brennan Center for Justice, brennancenter.org/our-work/policy-solutions/effects-shelby-county-v-holder.
North Carolina followed: North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP v. Raymond, 832 F.2nd (4th Circuit 2020).
Since Shelby, state: Kevin Morris, “Voter Purge Rates Remain High, Analysis Finds,” Brennan Center for Justice, accessed August 21, 2019, brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/voter-purge-rates-remain-high-analysis-finds.
Over the past decade: See Klain et al., Waiting to Vote.
“The American instinct”: Barack Obama, “Remarks by the President at the 50th Anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery Marches,” The White House, March 7, 2015.
As President Trump: Sam Levine, “Trump Says Republicans Would ‘Never’ Be Elected Again if It Was Easier to Vote,” Guardian, March 30, 2020, theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/30/trump-republican-party-voting-reform-coronavirus.
From Michigan to: Amy Gardner, Tom Hamburger, and Josh Dawsey, “Trump Allies Work to Place Supporters in Key Election Posts Across the Country, Spurring Fears About Future Vote Challenges,” Washington Post, November 29, 2021, washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-allies-election-oversight/2021/11/28/3933b3ce-4227-11ec-9ea7-3eb2406a2e24_story.html.
The numbers are: John Gramlich, “How Trump Compares with Other Recent Presidents in Appointing Federal Judges,” Pew Research Center, January 13, 2021, pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/01/13/how-trump-compares-with-other-recent-presidents-in-appointing-federal-judges/.
The skew of: Tom McCarthy and Alvin Chang, “ ‘The Senate Is Broken’: System Empowers White Conservatives, Threatening US Democracy,” Guardian, March 12, 2021.
All these are: Sarah Repucci, “From Crisis to Reform: A Call to Strengthen America’s Battered Democracy,” Freedom House, 2021, freedomhouse.org/report/special-report/2021/crisis-reform-call-strengthen-americas-battered-democracy#footnote2_mf63alg.
As I said in Selma: Holder, “Attorney General Holder Reaffirms Commitment to Voting Rights.”
Republicans have begun: Zack Beauchamp, “The Republican Revolt Against Democracy, Explained in 13 Charts,” Vox, March 1, 2021, vox.com/policy-and-politics/22274429/republicans-anti-democracy-13-charts.
This is in: Christina Prignano and Travis Andersen, “Republican Senator Mike Lee Says ‘Democracy Isn’t the Objective’ in Baffling Tweet,” Boston Globe, October 8, 2020, bostonglobe.com/2020/10/08/nation/republican-senator-mike-lee-says-democracy-isnt-objective-baffling-tweet/.
Fox News, meanwhile: Zack Beauchamp, “It Happened There: How Democracy Died in Hungary,” Vox, September 13, 2018, vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/9/13/17823488/hungary-democracy-authoritarianism-trump.
At one point: Benjamin Novak and Michael Grynbaum, “Conservative Fellow Travelers: Tucker Carlson Drops In on Viktor Orban,” New York Times, August 10, 2021, nytimes.com/2021/08/07/world/europe/tucker-carlson-hungary.html.
Hungary later censored: Erik Wemple, “Hungary Punked Tucker Carlson,” Washington Post, August 14, 2021, washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/08/14/hungary-punked-tucker-carlson/.
They actually believe: Kathy Frankovic, “Republicans Say It Should Be Harder to Vote in America, While Democrats Want to Make It Easier,” YouGov, April 1, 2021, today.yougov.com/topics/politics/articles-reports/2021/04/01/republicans-say-it-should-be-harder-vote-poll; “Republicans and Democrats Move Further Apart in Views of Voting Access,” Pew Research Center, April 22, 2021, pewresearch.org/politics/2021/04/22/republicans-and-democrats-move-further-apart-in-views-of-voting-access/.
“public opinion, expressed by all”: United Kingdom, Hansard Parliamentary Debates, 3d ser., vol. 444 (1947).
This is why: Michael Massing, “Does Democracy Avert Famine?,” New York Times, March 1, 2003, nytimes.com/2003/03/01/arts/does-democracy-avert-famine.html.
“The past is”: William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun (New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2011), 73.
There were exceptions: The library of work on the history of voting rights in America is voluminous. See especially Alexander Keyssar, The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States, rev. ed. (New York: Basic Books, 2009); Ari Berman, Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015); Carol Anderson, One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy (London: Bloomsbury, 2019); and Evette Dionne, Lifting as We Climb: Black Women’s Battle for the Ballot Box (New York: Penguin, 2020).
In New Hampshire: Chilton Williamson, “The Age of Property Tests,” in American Suffrage: From Property to Democracy, 1760–1860 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1960), 12.
they needed to be well manicured: Williamson, “The Age of Property Tests,” 13.
they were binding: Chilton Williamson, “The Colonial Voter at the Polls,” in American Suffrage, 49.
unless you were Protestant: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 26–27.
He was a: See especially Erik Chaput, The People’s Martyr: Thomas Wilson Dorr and His 1842 Rhode Island Rebellion (Lawrence, Kan.: University Press of Kansas, 2014).
“gets up leisurely”: “New England Kitchen Lore,” Northern Junket 12, no. 5 (March 1976): 45.
“journeyman carpenter”: Seth Luther, “An Address on the Right of Free Suffrage,” Providence, R.I., 1833, Providence College Digital Commons, digitalcommons.providence.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=dorr_pamphlets, 4.
valued at upward of $134: See Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 80–81; and Chaput, The People’s Martyr.
“strange that a self-evident truth”: Luther, “An Address on the Right of Free Suffrage,” 5, 9.
“May all Traitors”: Luther, “An Address on the Right of Free Suffrage,” 4.
Despite objections from: Erik Chaput and Russell J. DeSimone, “Our Hidden History: Racism and Black Suffrage in the Dorr Rebellion,” USA Today, November 21, 2020.
In the months that followed: See Chaput, The People’s Martyr, 3–5; and Chaput, “ ‘Let the People Remember!’: Rhode Island’s Dorr Rebellion and Bay State Politics, 1842–1843,” Historical Journal of Massachusetts 39, no. 1–2 (2011).
just 52 voted: See Chaput, “ ‘Let the People Remember!’ ”
guilty of treason: Chaput, “ ‘Let the People Remember!’ ”
Even President John Tyler: Chaput, The People’s Martyr, 90–91.
“Peaceably if we can”: Luther, “An Address on the Right of Free Suffrage,” 21.
spurned by the rebels: Chaput, The People’s Martyr, 151.
brutalized by the state: Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States (New York: HarperCollins, 2016), 215.
riches-to-rags story: Chaput, The People’s Martyr, 204.
an unmarked grave: Carl Gersuny, “Seth Luther, Union Firebrand Who Railed Against Children Working in Mills,” Small State Big History (Online Review of Rhode Island History), August 2, 2021, smallstatebighistory.com/seth-luther-union-firebrand-who-railed-against-children-working-in-mills/.
But while the: Erik J. Chaput and Russell J. DeSimone, “My Turn: How Rhode Island Expanded Black Rights,” Providence Journal, September 16, 2017.
its sixteenth governor: Erik Chaput, “Proslavery and Antislavery Politics in Rhode Island’s 1842 Dorr Rebellion,” New England Quarterly 85, no. 4 (2012): 659.
He went fishing: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 39.
“We the People”: Meredith Hindley, “The Confessions of Gouverneur Morris: An Interview with Melanie Ralph Miller,” Humanities 40, no. 2 (2019).
“give the votes”: James Madison, The Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787: Which Framed the Constitution of the United States of America, ed. Gaillard Hunt and James Brown Scott (Clark, N.J.: The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd., 1999), 352.
“exclude such persons”: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 28–29.
“If these persons had votes”: William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, Volume 1: A Facsimile of the First Edition of 1765–1769 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979), 171.
“Americans used to vote”: Jill Lepore, “Rock, Paper, Scissors: How We Used to Vote,” The New Yorker, October 6, 2008, newyorker.com/magazine/2008/10/13/rock-paper-scissors.
“Children do not vote”: “Madison Debates,” Avalon Project at Yale Law School, avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/debates_807.asp.
“the best guardians”: “Madison Debates.”
“Democracy,” he exclaimed: “Madison Debates.”
“vicious arts”: “The Federalist Papers: No. 10,” Avalon Project at Yale Law School, avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed10.asp.
“an immediate revolution”: “From John Adams to James Madison, 17 June 1817,” Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-6772.
“The same reasoning”: “From John Adams to James Sullivan, 26 May 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-04-02-0091.
Edward Rutledge, from: “Madison Debates.”
And George Mason: “Madison Debates.”
At the convention: “Madison Debates.”
“Today a man”: As cited in Alexander Keyssar, “The Project of Democracy,” Maine Policy Review 11, no. 2 (2002): 93.
Somehow, even with: “Madison Debates.”
To put a number: Lepore, “Rock, Paper, Scissors.”
As Chilton Williamson: Williamson, American Suffrage, 57.
Voter fraud may: Williamson, American Suffrage, 49–51, 56–59.
Then there was: Williamson, American Suffrage, 43–44.
As Lepore writes: Lepore, “Rock, Paper, Scissors.”
Votes were easy: Lepore, “Rock, Paper, Scissors.”
In 1792, Delaware: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 65–66.
When Andrew Jackson: Lepore, “Rock, Paper, Scissors.”
As Alexander Keyssar: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 49–54.
After all, in: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 51.
In Virginia, the landless: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 52.
Of course, as: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 52–53.
The Virginia delegation: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 51.
What he meant: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 54.
The second reason: Keyssar, The Right to Vote.
“Should we not”: Keyssar, The Right to Vote.
Beginning in the: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 55.
In North Carolina: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 56.
Because people really: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 56–57.
That’s why, after: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 56.
turnout nearly tripled: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 55.
“there be something in the ownership of land”: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 58.
Because, as Frederick Douglass: Frederick Douglass, Two Speeches by Frederick Douglass: One on West India Emancipation and the Other on the Dred Scott Decision (Rochester, N.Y.: C. P. Dewey, 1857), loc.gov/item/mfd.21039/.
On May 10: “The Anti-Slavery Society; Exciting Debate and Final Action on Mr. Gurrison’s Resolution of Dissolution,” New York Times, May 11, 1865.
Six days after: Trevor Plante, “Ending the Bloodshed: The Last Surrenders of the Civil War,” Prologue, Spring 2015, archives.gov/publications/prologue/2015/spring.
With this progress: “The Anti-Slavery Society,” New York Times.
“Rejoicing with joy”: “The Anti-Slavery Society,” New York Times.
He continued: “Important Session of the Anti Slavery Society,” New York Times, May 10, 1865, nytimes.com/1865/05/10/archives/the-anniversaries-important-session-of-the-antislavery-society.html.
But his partner: “The Anti-Slavery Society,” New York Times.
“Slavery is not abolished”: “The Anti-Slavery Society,” New York Times.
“this nation was in trouble”: Frederick Douglass, “What the Black Man Wants,” 1865, an electronic publication of Black Past, March 15, 2012, blackpast.org/african-american-history/1865-frederick-douglass-what-black-man-wants/.
“Shall we be citizens in war”: Douglass, “What the Black Man Wants.”
“Here where universal”: Douglass, “What the Black Man Wants.”
“No Reconstruction Without”: Wendell Phillips, Commonwealth, May 6, 2015; N.A.S. Standard, May 27, 1865.
These Lost Cause propagandists: Eric Foner, “South Carolina’s Forgotten Black Political Revolution,” Slate, January 31, 2018.
In some cases: Foner, “South Carolina’s Forgotten Black Political Revolution.”
In D. W. Griffith’s: Eric Foner, “Rooted in Reconstruction: The First Wave of Black Congressmen,” The Nation, October 15, 2008.
It was nothing: See W.E.B Du Bois, Black Reconstruction in America: An Essay Toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860–1880, ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007).
in just over a decade: Foner, “South Carolina’s Forgotten Black Political Revolution.”
And they used that power: See especially Eric Foner, Freedom’s Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders During Reconstruction (Baton Rouge, La.: Louisiana State University Press, 1996).
As Du Bois wrote: Du Bois, Black Reconstruction in America, 570.
Within years, public school enrollment: David Tyack and Robert Lowe, “The Constitutional Moment: Reconstruction and Black Education in the South,” American Journal of Education 94, no. 2 (1986): 236–56, doi.org/10.1086/443844, 249.
After all, before: Alexander Keyssar, The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States, rev. ed. (New York: Basic Books, 2009), 94.
And across the country: Steven F. Lawson, Black Ballots: Voting Rights in the South, 1944–1969 (Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 1999), 2.
in the eyes: Andrew Johnson, The Papers of Andrew Johnson, vol. 9–10 (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1865–1866), 205.
And unlike President Lincoln: Abraham Lincoln, “Last Public Address,” April 11, 1865.
He wanted a: Thomas Nast, Artist, “This is a white man’s government” “We regard the Reconstruction Acts so called of Congress as usurpations, and unconstitutional, revolutionary, and void”—Democratic Platform / / Th. Nast, 1868, loc.gov/item/98513794/.
When Black Americans in New Orleans: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 97.
And over the: Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow (New York: Penguin Books, 2020), 26.
This included Union general William Tecumseh Sherman: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 95.
And Republicans in Congress: See especially Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 98–105.
The problem, though: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 97.
This is where the Reconstruction Act of 1867: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 98.
Alabama, for instance: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 99.
Over time, though: “Reconstruction in America: Racial Violence after the Civil War, 1865–1876,” Equal Justice Initiative, eji.org/report/reconstruction-in-america/.
In South Carolina: Foner, “South Carolina’s Forgotten Black Political Revolution.”
The election of officials: See especially Justin Behrend, Reconstructing Democracy: Grassroots Black Politics in the Deep South after the Civil War (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2017), 176; and Eric Foner, A Short History of Reconstruction (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2015), 152–3.
As a reporter: Foner, A Short History of Reconstruction, 128.
They embodied: John Lewis, “Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation,” New York Times, July 30, 2020, nytimes.com/2020/07/30/opinion/john-lewis-civil-rights-america.html.
Their goal, as: Foner, A Short History of Reconstruction, 184.
Black Americans who dared: Foner, A Short History of Reconstruction, 184–85.
to South Carolina: Foner, “South Carolina’s Forgotten Black Political Revolution.”
This is the democracy: National Parks Service, “A Short Overview of the Reconstruction Era and Ulysses S. Grant’s Presidency,” U.S. Department of the Interior, n.d., nps.gov/articles/000/a-short-overview-of-the-reconstruction-era-and-ulysses-s-grant-s-presidency.htm.
Against this backdrop: See especially Foner, A Short History of Reconstruction; and Keyssar, The Right to Vote.
It was written: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 101.
There were more radical drafts: Keyssar, The Right to Vote.
Unfortunately, more representatives: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 109.
Like Boutwell in the House: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 100–101.
On the other side: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 102.
He made a persuasive case: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 103.
“The right of”: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 105.
For so-called Radical: Eric Foner, The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution (Canada: W. W. Norton, 2019), 104.
Frederick Douglass declared: Foner, A Short History of Reconstruction, 107.
Wendell Phillips called the: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 82.
William Lloyd Garrison: Foner, A Short History of Reconstruction, 193.
One of the biggest advocates: Foner, “South Carolina’s Forgotten Black Political Revolution.”
On the floor: Foner, “South Carolina’s Forgotten Black Political Revolution.”
His argument won out: Foner, “South Carolina’s Forgotten Black Political Revolution,” 195.
And for a moment: Eric Foner, Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction (2005), 129, as quoted in Aderson Bellegarde François, “To Make Freedom Happen: Shelby County v. Holder, the Supreme Court, and the Creation Myth of American Voting Rights,” Northern Illinois University Law Review 34 (2014): 529, 543.
Reconstruction was also: U.S. v. Cruikshank, 92 U.S. 542 (1876).
Perhaps it’s no: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 111.
From this moment forward: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 110.
As Adelbert Ames: Foner, A Short History of Reconstruction, 236.
while he wasn’t: Douglas A. Blackmon, Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II (New York: Anchor Books, a division of Random House, Inc., 2009).
Before taking office: Barton Gellman, “The Election That Could Break America,” The Atlantic, November 15, 2020, theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/11/what-if-trump-refuses-concede/616424/.
Within months, Georgia: Evette Dionne, Lifting as We Climb: Black Women’s Battle for the Ballot Box (New York: Penguin, 2020), 52.
“We are in”: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 111–12.
Similar laws were: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 115.
The goal, according: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 115–16.
And in 1890: Anderson, One Person, No Vote, 3–7.
“This feigned legal”: Anderson, One Person, No Vote, 3.
The numbers spoke: Steven Mintz, “Winning the Vote: A History of Voting Rights,” History Now—Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, October 4, 2009, retrieved from gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/essays/winning-vote-history-voting-rightsWinning%20the%20VoteA%20History%20of%20Voting%20Rights%20Gilder%20Lehrman%20Institute%20of%20American%20History.pdf.
In Louisiana, where: Anderson, One Person, No Vote, 4.
“We stood appalled”: Lisa Tetrault, The Myth of Seneca Falls: Memory and the Women’s Suffrage Movement, 1848–1898 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2017), 116.
The story of women voting: Gillian Brockell, “More Than a Century Before the 19th Amendment, Women Were Voting in New Jersey,” Washington Post, August 4, 2020, washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/local/history/new-jersey-women-vote-1776-suffrage/.
But in Section IV: “Constitution of New Jersey,” Avalon Project at Yale Law School, avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/nj15.asp#1.
In fact, historians: “Discovering America’s First Women Voters, 1800–1807,” Museum of the American Revolution, amrevmuseum.org/virtualexhibits/when-women-lost-the-vote-a-revolutionary-story/pages/discovering-america-s-first-women-voters-1800-1807.
There were African Americans: “Constitution of New Jersey.”
As Sally Roesch Wagner: See especially Sally Roesch Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement (New York: Penguin Books, 2019), xviii.
After the signing: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 187.
A few years: Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 8.
In fact, women: Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 76.
As Abigail Adams: Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 282.
In fact, even: Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, xxvi.
This movement included: See especially Nell Irvin Painter, Sojourner Truth: A Life, a Symbol (New York: W. W. Norton, 1996).
Which is why: Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 52–53.
Abolitionism is also: Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 57–60.
That process started: Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 58.
It began with familiar words: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 1 (Rochester, N.Y.: Fowler and Wells, 1889), 70–71.
“The history of mankind”: Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 76.
Many of the: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “Declaration of Sentiments,” Report of the Woman’s Rights Convention, Held at Seneca Falls, New York, July 19 and 20, 1848, Rochester, N.Y.: The North Star office of Frederick Douglass, 1848.
Sojourner Truth delivered: Sojourner Truth, as quoted in Ellen Carol Dubois, “How Women’s Suffrage Changed America Far Beyond the Ballot Box,” Wall Street Journal, August 19, 2020, wsj.com/articles/how-womens-suffrage-changed-america-far-beyond-the-ballot-box-11596207771.
“In every effort”: Dubois, “How Women’s Suffrage Changed America Far Beyond the Ballot Box.”
Coming out of the convention: Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 84.
When a petition: Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 103.
In California, legislators: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 183.
“One question at”: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 171.
As Susan B. Anthony: Susan B. Anthony, as quoted in Sarah Jones, “The Complicated History of the Suffragette Movement,” New Republic, November 8, 2016, newrepublic.com/article/138512/complicated-history-suffragette-movement.
This is the context: Martha S. Jones, Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All (New York: Basic Books, 2020), 95.
“We are all”: Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, “We are All Bound Up Together,” 1866, an electronic publication of Black Past, November 7, 2011, blackpast.org/african-american-history/speeches-african-american-history/1866-frances-ellen-watkins-harper-we-are-all-bound-together/.
“Think of Patrick”: Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 194.
Suffragist Anna Howard Shaw: Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 404.
Lucy Stone, a prominent feminist: “Image 5 of Constitution of the American Woman Suffrage Association and the History of Its Formation: With the Times and Places in Which the Association Has Held Meetings up to 1880,” Library of Congress, loc.gov/resource/rbnawsa.n8291/?sp=5&st=text.
One of the most: Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 235.
“It is the duty of women”: Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 108.
In 1858, that: Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 87.
With Stone as: Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 275.
Unlike Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: Jessica Hynes, “The 1870s Tax Resistance of Julia and Abby Smith: From Natural Rights to Expediency in the Shadow of Separate Spheres,” Tennessee Journal of Race, Gender, & Social Justice 2, no. 2 (2013).
Abby believed this: “The Smith Sisters, Their Cows, and Women’s Rights in Glastonbury,” Connecticut History: A CT Humanities Project, March 6, 2021, connecticuthistory.org/the-smith-sisters-their-cows-and-womens-rights-in-glastonbury/.
The Republican, a local newspaper: “The Smith Sisters.”
Susan A. King, one of the wealthiest women in America: Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 285.
As the authors of: Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 249.
“Gradually, then suddenly”: Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises.
a quarter century after: Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 247.
For others, it meant: See especially Ian Tyrell, Woman’s World/Woman’s Empire: The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union in International Perspective, 1880–1930 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991).
For more radical suffragists: Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 248.
A lawyer who had: Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 322.
“If necessary”: Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement.
That same revolutionary energy: Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 307.
it was voted: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 178.
As Frederick Douglass: Frederick Douglass, “Frederick Douglass on Woman Suffrage,” 1888, an electronic publication of Black Past, January 28, 2007, blackpast.org/african-american-history/speeches-african-american-history/1888-frederick-douglass-woman-suffrage/.
There were more white women: Elizabeth Cady Stanton et al., History of Women’s Suffrage, vol. II (Rochester, N.Y.: Charles Mann, 1887), 929–30.
“We call attention”: As quoted in JoEllen Lind, “Dominance and Democracy: The Legacy of Women’s Suffrage for the Voting Right,” UCLA Women’s Journal 5, no. 1 (1994): 175.
As part of this pivot: Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 345.
And in the years: Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 342.
Reflecting on this: Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 360.
She started raising money: See especially Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 188.
Next came California: Jennifer Helton, “Woman Suffrage in the West,” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, n.d., nps.gov/articles/woman-suffrage-in-the-west.htm.
The following year: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 195.
The woman in charge: “Alice Paul Talks,” Philadelphia Tribune, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, January 10, 1910. Manuscript/Mixed Material. loc.gov/item/rbcmiller003903/.
It was set: Alice Paul, “Conversation with Alice Paul: Woman Suffrage and the Equal Rights Amendment,” July 10, 1977, an electronic publication of the Suffragists Oral History Project (Berkeley, Calif., 1976), oac.cdlib.org/view?docId=kt6f59n89c&doc.view=entire_text.
The attendees included: Sydney Trent, “The Black Sorority that Faced Racism in the Suffrage Movement but Refused to Walk Away,” Washington Post, August 8, 2020, washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/local/history/suffrage-racism-black-deltas-parade-washington/.
“The participation of negroes”: Trent, “The Black Sorority.”
This was not a concession: Cathleen D. Cahill, Recasting the Vote: How Women of Color Transformed the Suffrage Movement (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2020), 105.
The rest of the women: Trent, “The Black Sorority.”
By all accounts: Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 432.
For a while: Terence McArdle, “ ‘Night of Terror’: The Suffragists Who Were Beaten and Tortured for Seeking the Vote,” Washington Post, November 10, 2017.
“They tied us down”: Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 448.
The pain was: Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 449.
There were a few: See especially Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 438; and Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 185.
the organization was: Susan Ware, Why They Marched: Untold Stories of the Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2019), 251–64.
Before long, her tactics: Ware, Why They Marched, 259.
“When victory was”: Ware, Why They Marched, 448.
Fortunately, the filibuster: Ware, Why They Marched, 262.
This meant the suffragists: Elaine F. Weiss, The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote (New York: Penguin Books, 2019), 277.
“Nearly every day”: Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement.
She was right: See especially Weiss, The Woman’s Hour.
As Upton recalled: Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 470.
“They feared nothing”: Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 471.
his mother had: Weiss, The Woman’s Hour, 305.
He had sat through: Weiss, The Woman’s Hour, 288.
And Burn knew: Weiss, The Woman’s Hour, 305.
But as Elaine Weiss describes: Weiss, The Woman’s Hour, 306.
And when the final count: Weiss, The Woman’s Hour, 307; and Wagner, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 72–78.
“The right of citizens”: U.S. Const. amend. XIX, § 1, cl. 1.
“The vote is the emblem”: Weiss, The Woman’s Hour, 323.
Jim Crow Must Go: “Medgar Evers,” NAACP, May 11, 2021, naacp.org/find-resources/history-explained/civil-rights-leaders/medgar-evers.
wife and children were waiting: “Murder of Medgar Evers,” Medgar Evers College, mec.cuny.edu/history/murder-of-medgar-evers/.
He had met the same: Debbie Elliott, “Integrating Ole Miss: A Transformative, Deadly Riot,” NPR Morning Edition, October 1, 2012, npr.org/2012/10/01/161573289/integrating-ole-miss-a-transformative-deadly-riot.
It was an emotional: Theodore C. Sorensen, Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History (New York: Harper Perennial, 2009), 278–83.
“One hundred years”: John Fitzgerald Kennedy, “Televised Address to the Nation on Civil Rights,” June 11, 1963, an electronic publication of the John F. Kennedy Library (Piscataway, N.J.), jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/historic-speeches/televised-address-to-the-nation-on-civil-rights.
“It ought to”: Kennedy, “Televised Address to the Nation on Civil Rights.”
“We’re interested in making”: Myrlie Evers-Williams and Manning Marable, The Autobiography of Medgar Evers: A Hero’s Life and Legacy Revealed Through His Writings, Letters and Speeches (Washington: Perseus Books, 2006), 303.
In 1946, hoping: Gary May, Bending Toward Justice: The Voting Rights Act and the Transformation of American Democracy (Durham: Duke University Press, 2015), 165.
In fact, as: Ari Berman, “Jim Crow Killed Voting Rights for Generations. Now the GOP Is Repeating History,” Mother Jones, June 2, 2021, motherjones.com/politics/2021/06/jim-crow-killed-voting-rights-for-generations-now-the-gop-is-repeating-history/.
“By 1907 every”: Berman, “Jim Crow Killed Voting Rights for Generations.”
“The number of”: Berman, “Jim Crow Killed Voting Rights for Generations.”
And as historian C. Vann Woodward: C. Vann Woodward, The Strange Career of Jim Crow (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 83–84.
The “white primary”: Grovey v. Townsend, 295 U.S. 45 (1935).
Medgar understood this: Karen Grigsby Bates, “Trials & Transformation: Myrlie Evers’ 30-Year Fight to Convict Medgar’s Accused Killer,” Emerge 2 (1994): 35.
Just days after Emmett’s arrival: ArLuther Lee, “An American Tragedy—The Lynching of Emmett Till,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution, October 19, 2020, ajc.com/news/weekend-read-an-american-tragedy-the-lynching-of-emmett-till/SSYUCF7CZRELXLS4UVEWJG5PDY/.
“The world,” she decided: Juan Williams, Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954–1965 (Penguin Books, 2013), 44.
So she held: “The Trial of J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant,” PBS American Experience, pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/emmett-trial-jw-milam-and-roy-bryant/.
“Freedom has never”: Medgar Evers, as quoted in Minrose Gwin, Remembering Medgar Evers: Writing the Long Civil Rights Movement (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2013), 100.
“I opened the door”: “Murder of Medgar Evers,” Medgar Evers College.
The children screamed: Karen Grigsby Bates, “Trials & Transformation,” 35.
For three decades, his killer: Gina Holland, “Supreme Court Upholds Beckwith Conviction in Medgar Evers’ Murder,” Associated Press, December 22, 1997.
That day was on the mind of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: Martin Luther King, Jr., “I Have a Dream,” August 28, 1963, reprinted by Rebecca Roberts, NPR, January 18, 2010, npr.org/2010/01/18/122701268/i-have-a-dream-speech-in-its-entirety.
It was on the mind of Lyndon B. Johnson: Lyndon B. Johnson, “President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Address to a Joint Session of Congress Regarding President John F. Kennedy’s Assassination, Civil Rights Legislation, and Other Topics,” November 27, 1963, Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, Record Group 233.
“The Mississippi monolith”: Nikole Hannah-Jones, “Freedom Summer, 1964: Did It Really Change Mississippi?,” The Atlantic, July 8, 2014, theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/07/the-ghosts-of-freedom-summer-in-greenwood-mississippi/374106/.
This mindset inspired: Matthew Wills, “How the Freedom Vote Mobilized Black Mississippians,” JSTOR Daily, August 4, 2021, daily.jstor.org/how-the-freedom-vote-mobilized-black-mississippians.
Over the course: Camila Domonoske, “Officials Close Investigations into 1964 ‘Mississippi Burning’ Killings,” NPR, June 21, 2016, npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/06/21/482914440/officials-close-investigation-into-1964-mississippi-burning-killings.
Together, Andrew, Michael, and James: Bruce Watson, Freedom Summer: The Savage Season That Made Mississippi Burn and Made America a Democracy (New York: Penguin Group, 2010), 239.
For forty-four days: Charles P. Pierce, “The Ku Klux Klan Murdered Them for Registering Citizens to Vote. That Was All,” Esquire, June 21, 2021, esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a36792480/ku-klux-klan-murder-civil-rights-workers-mississippi/.
Left to rest in an earthen dam: Pierce, “The Ku Klux Klan.”
98–99 Goodman had been buried: Julia Cass, “A Mississippi Freedom Summer Pilgrimage: An Atrocity We Must Never Forget,” HuffPost, December 6, 2017, huffpost.com/entry/a-mississippi-freedom-sum_b_5622366.
As Rita Schwerner: Nikole Hannah-Jones, “A Brutal Loss, but an Enduring Conviction,” ProPublica, July 22, 2014, propublica.org/article/a-brutal-loss-but-an-enduring-conviction.
“Our most urgent”: Martin Luther King, Jr., “Give Us the Ballot,” May 17, 1957, an electronic publication of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project at The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute (Palo Alto, Calif., 1985).
In theory, President Johnson: Louis Menand, “The Color of Law,” The New Yorker, July 1, 2013, newyorker.com/magazine/2013/07/08/the-color-of-law.
“I’m going to do”: Nick Kotz, Judgment Days: Lyndon Baines Johnson, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Laws that Changed America (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005), 244.
This was, after all: See especially Anderson, One Person, No Vote, 19, 21, 649.
Which was why: Mark K. Updegrove, “What ‘Selma’ Gets Wrong,” Politico, December 22, 2014, politico.com/magazine/story/2014/12/what-selma-gets-wrong-113743/.
Within weeks: Nick Kotz, Judgment Days: Lyndon Baines Johnson, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Laws That Changed America (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005), 254.
The problem, of course: Brian Lyman, “Selma: ‘The Last Revolution’ of civil rights,” The Montgomery Advertiser, March 1, 2015, montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/local/selma50/2015/03/01/selma-last-revolution-civil-rights/24213897/.
“When the king”: King, “Letter from a Selma, Alabama, Jail.”
“I think that”: Malcolm X, as quoted in John Lewis and Michael D’Orso, Walking with Wind: A Memoir of the Movement (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015), 324.
It demonstrated: Winston A. Grady-Willis, Challenging U.S. Apartheid: Atlanta and Black Struggles for Human Rights, 1960–1977 (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006), 75.
Vivian Malone was there: May, Bending Toward Justice, 27.
In the years following: See especially Berman, Give Us the Ballot, 45, 83.
One of these: Berman, Give Us the Ballot, 78.
A civil rights hero: John Fitzgerald Kennedy, “Televised Address to the Nation on Civil Rights.”
To be honest: Tom Wicker, “Johnson Bestows Pens Used on Bill,” New York Times, July 3, 1964, timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1964/07/03/97267720.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0.
Within hours of: Berman, Give Us the Ballot, 37–39.
white Americans registered at record rates: Dara Lind, “19 Maps and Charts That Explain Voting Rights in America,” Vox, vox.com/2015/8/6/9107183/voting-rights-map-chart.
The following year: South Carolina v. Katzenbach, 383 U.S. 301 (1966).
In 1971, the voting age: Gemma R. Birnbaum, “ ‘Old Enough to Fight, Old Enough to Vote’: The WWII Roots of the 26th Amendment,” The National WWII Museum, October 28, 2020, nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/voting-age-26th-amendment.
In 1984, the Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and Handicapped Act: The Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and Handicapped Act, U.S. Code 52 (1985), § 201.
The next year: Keyssar, The Right to Vote, 242.
In the years since: Hugh Davis Graham, “Richard Nixon and Civil Rights: Explaining an Enigma,” Presidential Studies Quarterly 25, no. 1 (Winter 1996): 93–106; Pedro Noguera and Robert Cohen, “Remembering Reagan’s Record on Civil Rights and the South African Freedom Struggle,” The Nation, February 11, 2011, thenation.com/article/archive/remembering-reagans-record-civil-rights-and-south-african-freedom-struggle/.
And as recently as 2006: Raymond Hernandez, “After Challenges, House Approves Renewal of Voting Act,” New York Times, July 14, 2006, nytimes.com/2006/07/14/washington/14rights.html.
It wasn’t even close: U.S. Congress, House, Fannie Lou Hammer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006, HR 9, 109th Cong., 1st sess., introduced in House May 2, 2006, congress.gov/bill/109th-congress/house-bill/9.
According to a Brennan Center: Brennan Center for Justice, “Debunking the Voter Fraud Myth” (New York: Brennan Center for Justice, 2017); Justin Levitt, “A Comprehensive Investigation of Voter Impersonation Finds 31 Credible Incidents out of One Billion Ballots Cast,” Washington Post, August 6, 2014; NOAA US Department of Commerce, “How Dangerous Is Lightning?,” National Weather Service (NOAA’s National Weather Service, March 12, 2019), weather.gov/safety/lightning-odds.
But even as Republican legislatures: See especially Anderson, One Person, No Vote, 58–62.
So when the: Barack Obama, “Barack Obama’s Remarks to the Democratic National Convention,” New York Times, July 27, 2004, nytimes.com/2004/07/27/politics/campaign/barack-obamas-remarks-to-the-democratic-national.html.
From the moment: Glenn Kessler, “When Did Mitch McConnell Say He Wanted to Make Obama a One-Term President?,” Washington Post, January 11, 2017, washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/01/11/when-did-mitch-mcconnell-say-he-wanted-to-make-obama-a-one-term-president/.
Gone were the days: Carla Herreria Russo, “The Real Story Behind John McCain’s Famous Campaign Rally Moment,” HuffPost, August 26, 2018, huffpost.com/entry/mccain-defends-obama-real-story_n_5b821dffe4b03485860129c4.
After two years: Liz Halloran, “Obama Humbled By Election ‘Shellacking,’ ” NPR, November 3, 2010.
In the Senate, Republicans won: Peter Roff, “Measuring the Size of Election 2010’s Republican Sweep,” US News, November 5, 2010, usnews.com/opinion/blogs/peter-roff/2010/11/05/measuring-the-size-of-election-2010s-republican-sweep.
In the House: Aaron Blake, “Which Election Was Worse for Democrats: 2010 or 2014? It’s a Surprisingly Close Call,” Washington Post, November 5, 2014.
As Karl Rove: David Daley, Ratf**ked: The True Story Behind the Secret Plan to Steal America’s Democracy (New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2017), 4.
The first was on our elections: Klain, Morris, Feldman, and Ayala, Waiting to Vote.
How else do you explain: See Ari Berman, “The GOP War on Voting,” Rolling Stone, August 30, 2011, rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/the-gop-war-on-voting-242182/; German Lopez, “Voter Suppression in Alabama: What’s True and What’s Not,” Vox, December 12, 2017, vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/12/12/16767426/alabama-voter-suppression-senate-moore-jones.
Or the laws in Ohio: Berman, “The GOP War on Voting.”
As John Lewis, who was then a thirteenth-term congressman: Eric Holder, “Attorney General Eric Holder Speaks at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library & Museum,” United States Department of Justice, December 13, 2011, justice.gov/opa/speech/attorney-general-eric-holder-speaks-lyndon-baines-johnson-library-museum.
And I talked about: Holder, “Attorney General Eric Holder Speaks at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library & Museum.”
“For me, and for our nation’s Department of Justice”: Holder, “Attorney General Eric Holder Speaks at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library & Museum.”
The photo ID law in Texas: Berman, Give Us the Ballot, 264.
The day after: Eric Holder, “Attorney General Eric Holder Speech at the NAACP Annual Convention,” United States Department of Justice, July 10, 2012, justice.gov/opa/speech/attorney-general-eric-holder-speaks-naacp-annual-convention.
“A poll tax in Alabama”: Berman, Give Us the Ballot, 266.
“In our efforts”: Holder, “Attorney General Eric Holder Speech at the NAACP Annual Convention.”
In the end: Berman, Give Us the Ballot, 266.
In other words: State of Texas v. Eric H. Holder (United States District Court for the District of Columbia August 30, 2012).
on the eve of the 2012 election: Berman, Give Us the Ballot, 266.
The first time: Daley, Ratf**ked, xvii.
As Erick Trickey: Erick Trickey, “Where Did the Term ‘Gerrymander’ Come From?,” Smithsonian, July 20, 2017, smithsonianmag.com/history/where-did-term-gerrymander-come-180964118/.
The map was: Trickey, “Where Did the Term ‘Gerrymander’ Come From?”
And thus the: Trickey, “Where Did the Term ‘Gerrymander’ Come From?”
The goal of this effort: The RSLC redistricting majority project—REDMAP, redistrictingmajorityproject.com/?page_id=2.
The story of how: See especially Daley, Ratf**ked, xxv.
It was an investment: Daley, Ratf**ked, xix.
As Vann Newkirk notes: Vann R. Newkirk II, “How Redistricting Became a Technological Arms Race,” The Atlantic, October 28, 2017, theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/10/gerrymandering-technology-redmap-2020/543888/.
And we successfully: Texas v. United States, F. Supp. 2d 133 (D.D.C. 2012).
On the whole: Daley, Ratf**ked, xxi.
as Daley observes: Daley, Ratf**ked, xxiii.
In Michigan, Daley: Daley, Ratf**ked, xxv.
As soon as the opening arguments: Adam Liptak, “Voting Rights Law Draws Skepticism From Justices,” New York Times, February 27, 2013, nytimes.com/2013/02/28/us/politics/conservative-justices-voice-skepticism-on-voting-law.html; Adam Winkler, “Supreme Court Likely to Strike Down the Voting Rights Act’s Section 5,” Daily Beast, February 27, 2013, thedailybeast.com/supreme-court-likely-to-strike-down-the-voting-rights-acts-section-5; Josh Gerstein, “Voting Rights Act Under Fire,” Politico, February 27, 2013, politico.com/story/2013/02/voting-rights-act-under-fire-at-supreme-court-088178.
Over and over, Roberts kept: Nate Silver, “In Supreme Court Debate on Voting Rights Act, a Dubious Use of Statistics,” FiveThirtyEight, March 7, 2013, fivethirtyeight.com/features/in-supreme-court-debate-on-voting-rights-act-a-dubious-use-of-statistics/.
And this came on the heels: Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No. 1 v. Holder, 557 U.S. __ (2009); Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 529 (2013).
Yes, Justice Roberts had been adversarial: Berman, Give Us the Ballot, 251.
When a jurisdiction did: Danielle Lang, “Five Decades of Section 5: How This Key Provision of the Voting Rights Act Protected Our Democracy,” Campaign Legal Center, June 22, 2016, campaignlegal.org/update/five-decades-section-5-how-key-provision-voting-rights-act-protected-our-democracy.
And yes, five justices: Hernandez, “After Challenges, House Approves Renewal of Voting Act.”
In response to Shelby County’s lawyer: Berman, Give Us the Ballot, 274.
That’s why Shelby: Shelby County v. Holder, 811 F. Supp. 2d 424 (D.D.C. 2011).
And it’s why: “Shelby County v. Holder,” Brennan Center for Justice, August 4, 2018, brennancenter.org/our-work/court-cases/shelby-county-v-holder.
“Let me be clear”: Eric Holder, “Attorney General Eric Holder Speaks at the Edmund Pettus Bridge Crossing Jubilee,” United States Department of Justice, March 3, 2013, justice.gov/opa/speech/attorney-general-eric-holder-speaks-theedmund-pettus-bridge-crossing-jubilee.
“The struggle for”: Holder, “Attorney General Eric Holder Speaks at the Edmund Pettus Bridge Crossing Jubilee.”
It’s a lesson: Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 529 (2013).
“I’m shocked, dismayed, disappointed”: Berman, Give Us the Ballot, 281.
“Like many others”: Eric Holder, “Attorney General Eric Holder Delivers Remarks on the Supreme Court Decision in Shelby County v. Holder,” United States Department of Justice, June 25, 2013.
And I promised: Holder, “Attorney General Eric Holder Delivers Remarks on the Supreme Court Decision in Shelby County v. Holder.”
There was an issue: Berman, Give Us the Ballot, 280.
Only days later: Texas v. Holder, 888 F. Supp. 2d 113 (D.D.C. 2012).
There was the shuttering of polling places: Klain et al., Waiting to Vote.
It’s no wonder the 2014 midterms: Jose A. DelReal, “Voter Turnout in 2014 Was the Lowest Since WWII,” Washington Post, November 10, 2014, washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2014/11/10/voter-turnout-in-2014-was-the-lowest-since-wwii/.
“throwing out preclearance”: Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 529, 593 (2013).
Trump declined to provide: “Read the full transcript from the first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump,” USA Today, September 30, 2020, usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/09/30/presidential-debate-read-full-transcript-first-debate/3587462001/.
Refusing to accept the results: Terry Gross, “Mike Wallace, Interviewer: ‘You and Me,’ ” NPR, November 8, 2005, npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4992445.
The outcry was immediate: Sam Sanders, “Donald Trump Says He’ll Accept the Results of the Election…if He Wins,” NPR, October 20, 2016, npr.org/2016/10/20/498713509/donald-trump-says-hell-accept-the-results-of-the-election-if-he-wins.
“I won the popular vote”: Cleve R. Wootson, Jr., “Donald Trump: ‘I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally,’ ” Washington Post, November 27, 2016, washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/27/donald-trump-i-won-the-popular-vote-if-you-deduct-the-millions-of-people-who-voted-illegally/.
His friend Bernhard Langer: Tim Hill, “Bernhard Langer: Trump Apologized to Me over Voter Fraud Story,” Guardian, February 9, 2017, theguardian.com/sport/2017/feb/09/bernhard-langer-donald-trump-golf-voter-fraud.
“None of them come to me”: Aaron Blacke, “Donald Trump Claims None of Those 3 to 5 Million Illegal Votes Were Cast for Him. Zero,” Washington Post, January 26, 2017, washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/01/25/donald-trump-claims-none-of-those-3-to-5-million-illegal-votes-were-cast-for-him-zero/.
But Trump was no longer: Christopher Rozen, “Donald Trump Emmy Tweets,” Entertainment Weekly, October 20, 2016, ew.com/article/2016/10/20/donald-trump-emmys-tweets/.
This is where Turner stood: Emily Bazelon, “The Voter Fraud Case Jeff Sessions Lost and Can’t Escape,” New York Times, January 9, 2017, nytimes.com/2017/01/09/magazine/the-voter-fraud-case-jeff-sessions-lost-and-cant-escape.html.
He marched in Selma: Ari Berman, “Jeff Sessions Has Spent His Whole Career Opposing Voting Rights,” The Nation, January 10, 2017, thenation.com/article/archive/jeff-sessions-has-spent-his-whole-career-opposing-voting-rights/.
He understood why so many: Bazelon, “The Voter Fraud Case Jeff Sessions Lost.”
Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III: Bazelon, “The Voter Fraud Case Jeff Sessions Lost.”
Thankfully, the witch hunt: Bazelon, “The Voter Fraud Case Jeff Sessions Lost.”
That’s why, within his first few months in office: Vann R. Newkirk II, “The End of Civil Rights,” The Atlantic, June 18, 2018, theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/06/sessions/563006/.
In Ohio: Sari Horwitz, “Justice Dept. Sides with Ohio’s Purge of Inactive Voters in Case Headed to Supreme Court,” Washington Post, August 8, 2017, washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/justice-department-reverses-position-to-allow-ohio-to-purge-inactive-voters-from-rolls/2017/08/08/e93c5116-7c35-11e7-9d08-b79f191668ed_story.html.
“partisan gerrymandering claims”: Rucho v. Common Cause, 588 U.S. __, 1 (2019)
Justice Kagan wrote: Rucho v. Common Cause.
“For the first time”: Rucho v. Common Cause.
over the course: Benjamin Wittes, “Malevolence Tempered by Incompetence: Trump’s Horrifying Executive Order on Refugees,” Lawfare, January 28, 2017, lawfareblog.com/malevolence-tempered-incompetence-trumps-horrifying-executive-order-refugees-and-visas.
His malevolence, for instance, led him: Adam Serwer, “An Incompetent Authoritarian Is Still a Catastrophe,” The Atlantic, January 20, 2021, theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/01/wounds-trump-leaves-behind/617738/.
The Trump Administration’s malevolence: Serwer, “An Incompetent Authoritarian Is Still a Catastrophe.”
Again and again: Alex Shephard, “People Close to Donald Trump Do Not Seem to Have Seen The Wire,” The New Republic, September 21, 2017, newrepublic.com/article/144936/people-close-donald-trump-not-seem-seen-wire.
“So what if he”: Serwer, “An Incompetent Authoritarian Is Still a Catastrophe.”
The Senate refused: See especially Neal Katyal and Sam Koppelman, Impeach: The Case Against Donald Trump (Edinburgh: Canongate, 2019).
“I’m not going to”: Chris Wallace, “Trump Says He Will ‘Have to See’ About Accepting Election,” Time, July 19, 2020, time.com/5868739/trump-election-results-chris-wallace/.
Later in the summer: Morgan Chalfant, “Trump: ‘The Only Way We’re Going to Lose This Election Is if the Election Is Rigged,’ ” The Hill, August 17, 2020, thehill.com/homenews/administration/512424-trump-the-only-way-we-are-going-to-lose-this-election-is-if-the.
And in the months: Steve Inskeep, “Timeline: What Trump Told Supporters For Months Before They Attacked,” NPR, February 8, 2021, npr.org/2021/02/08/965342252/timeline-what-trump-told-supporters-for-months-before-they-attacked.
He started in the courts: William Cummings, Joey Garrison, and Jim Sargent, “By the Numbers: President Donald Trump’s Failed Efforts to Overturn the Election,” USA Today, January 6, 2021, usatoday.com/in-depth/news/politics/elections/2021/01/06/trumps-failed-efforts-overturn-election-numbers/4130307001/.
Even the Supreme Court: Peters, “The Supreme Court Rejects Texas’s Undemocratic Election Lawsuit,” Vox, December 12, 2020.
And he was “proud” of it: Max Greenwood, “Georgia Elections Chief Says He Is a ‘Proud Trump Supporter,’ but ‘the Numbers Don’t Lie’ After Recount,” The Hill, November 20, 2020, thehill.com/homenews/campaign/526866-georgia-elections-chief-says-he-is-a-proud-trump-supporter-but-the-numbers.
But when it came time: Greenwood, “Georgia Elections Chief.”
“I didn’t lose the state”: Amy Gardner and Paulina Firozi, “Here’s the Full Transcript and Audio of the Call Between Trump and Raffensperger,” Washington Post, January 5, 2021, docs.google.com/document/d/13HiToMaulQglg7Erm7orHuP3a1v1YbHHUi3N1YBNkOY/edit?pli=1.
“Mr. President,” Raffensperger insisted: Gardner and Firozi, “Here’s the Full Transcript.”
“I just want to find”: Gardner and Firozi, “Here’s the Full Transcript.”
In Georgia, Trump had already: Julia Jester, “ ‘You’ll Be Praised’: Audio of Trump Call with Georgia Elections Investigator Offers New Details,” NBC News, March 15, 2021, nbcnews.com/politics/elections/you-ll-be-praised-audio-trump-call-georgia-elections-investigator-n1261159.
Meanwhile, the U.S. attorney from Atlanta: Matt Zapotosky and Devlin Barrett, “U.S. Attorney in Atlanta Abruptly Resigns, and Trump Bypasses His Deputy in Picking Temporary Successor,” Washington Post, January 5, 2021, washingtonpost.com/national-security/georgia-us-attorney-resigns/2021/01/05/5c7f9222-4f83-11eb-bda4-615aaefd0555_story.html.
Across the state, election officials: Stephen Fowler, “ ‘Someone’s Going to Get Killed’: Ga. Official Blasts GOP Silence on Election Threats,” NPR, December 1, 2020, npr.org/sections/biden-transition-updates/2020/12/01/940961602/someones-going-to-get-killed-ga-official-blasts-gop-silence-on-election-threats.
“Time will tell that”: Paul Egan, “Republican Party Moves to Replace GOP Board Member Who Voted to Certify Michigan Election,” Detroit Free Press, January 18, 2021, freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2021/01/18/gop-does-not-reappoint-vanlangevelde-board-canvassers/4207223001/.
“We have not yet”: Reuters Staff, “Michigan Republicans, After Meeting Trump, Say No Information to Change Election Outcome,” Reuters, November 20, 2020, reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-michigan/michigan-republicans-after-meeting-trump-say-no-information-to-change-election-outcome-idUSKBN2802CK.
He was even seemingly caught: Jonathan C. Cooper, “Arizona Governor Silences Trump’s Call, Certifies Election,” Associated Press, December 2, 2020, apnews.com/article/election-2020-donald-trump-arizona-elections-doug-ducey-e2b8b0de5b809efcc9b1ad5d279023f4.
And behind the scenes: Michael Balsamo, “Disputing Trump, Barr Says No Widespread Election Fraud,” Associated Press, December 1, 2020, apnews.com/article/barr-no-widespread-election-fraud-b1f1488796c9a98c4b1a9061a6c7f49d.
The stars and bars: Clint Smith, “The Whole Story in a Single Photo,” The Atlantic, January 8, 2021, theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/01/confederates-in-the-capitol/617594/.
A noose and gallows: Paul D. Shinkman, “Prosecutors: Capitol Rioters Intended to ‘Capture and Assassinate’ Elected Officials,” U.S. News, January 15, 2021, usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2021-01-15/prosecutors-capitol-rioters-intended-to-capture-and-assassinate-elected-officials.
140 injured: Tom Jackman, “Police Union Says 140 Officers Injured in Capitol Riot,” Washington Post, January 27, 2021, washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/police-union-says-140-officers-injured-in-capitol-riot/2021/01/27/60743642-60e2-11eb-9430-e7c77b5b0297_story.html.
Viking horns and “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirts: David K. Li and Shamar Walters, “Man in ‘Camp Auschwitz’ Shirt, Photographed at U.S. Riot, Arrested in Virginia,” NBC News, January 13, 2021, nbcnews.com/news/us-news/man-camp-auschwitz-shirt-photographed-u-s-capitol-riot-arrested-n1254070.
“walk down to the Capitol” and “fight like hell”: Brian Naylor, “Read Trump’s Jan. 6 Speech, a Key Part of the Impeachment Trial,” NPR, February 10, 2021, npr.org/2021/02/10/966396848/read-trumps-jan-6-speech-a-key-part-of-impeachment-trial.
Gabriel Sterling was right: Molly Ball, “What Mike Fanone Couldn’t Forget,” Time, August 5, 2021, time.com/6087577/michael-fanone-january-6-interview/.
“To those who wreaked havoc:”: Ashley Parker, Carol D. Leonnig, Paul Kane, and Emma Brown, “How the Rioters Who Stormed the Capitol Came Dangerously Close to Pence,” Washington Post, January 15, 2021, washingtonpost.com/politics/pence-rioters-capitol-attack/2021/01/15/ab62e434-567c-11eb-a08b-f1381ef3d207_story.html.
Ten minutes after the vice president: Josh Haltiwanger, “Trump Attacks Pence for Not Having the ‘Courage’ to Overturn the Election as President’s Supporters Storm the Capitol,” Business Insider, January 6, 2021, businessinsider.com/trump-attacks-pence-for-not-having-courage-to-overturn-election-2021-1.
“Count me out”: Josh Dawsey, “Lindsey Graham Said ‘Count Me Out’ After the Capitol Riot. But He’s All In with Trump Again,” Washington Post, February 20, 2021, washingtonpost.com/politics/lindsey-graham-donald-trump/2021/02/20/178afc0a-72ca-11eb-a4eb-44012a612cf9_story.html.
“disgraceful dereliction of duty”: Sahil Kapur, “After Acquitting Trump, McConnell Slams Him for a ‘Disgraceful Dereliction of Duty,’ ” NBC News, February 13, 2021, nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/after-acquitting-trump-mcconnell-slams-him-disgraceful-dereliction-duty-n1257900.
In total, ten Republican congressmen: Aaron Blake, “Trump’s Second Impeachment Is the Most Bipartisan One in History,” Washington Post, January 13, 2021, washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/13/trumps-second-impeachment-is-most-bipartisan-one-history/.
Joe Biden had defeated: Arnie Seipel, “FACT CHECK: Trump Falsely Claims a ‘Massive Landslide Victory,’ ” NPR, December 11, 2016, npr.org/2016/12/11/505182622/fact-check-trump-claims-a-massive-landslide-victory-but-history-differs.
notably, unlike Trump: Kate Sullivan and Jennifer Agiesta, “Biden’s Popular Vote Margin over Trump Tops 7 Million,” CNN, December 4, 2020.
In fact, according to the Brennan Center: Klain et al., Waiting to Vote.
By October 2021: Michael Waldman, Pastor Danielle Ayers, and Wendy R. Weiser, “Voting Laws Roundup: October 2021,” Brennan Center for Justice, October 4, 2021, brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/voting-laws-roundup-october-2021.
And it’s hard to imagine: Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee, 594 U.S. __ (2021).
The good news: David Litt, “The Strange Elegance of Joe Manchin’s Voter-ID Deal,” The Atlantic, June 18, 2021, theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/06/democrats-joe-manchin-deal-voter-id/619247/.
Remember Aaron Van Langevelde: Beth LeBlanc and Craig Mauger, “Michigan Republicans Seek to Replace GOP Canvasser Who Certified Election,” The Detroit News, January 18, 2021, theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/06/democrats-joe-manchin-deal-voter-id/619247/.
Liz Cheney, who voted to impeach: Daniel Strauss, “Liz Cheney Removed from House Leadership over Trump Criticism,” Guardian, May 12, 2021, theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/12/liz-cheney-house-leadership-republican-caucus-vote.
Brad Raffensperger was targeted: Russell Berman, “Trump’s Revenge Begins in Georgia,” The Atlantic, July 12, 2021, theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/07/trumps-revenge-brad-raffensperger-georgia/619407/.
Kevin McCarthy: Andrew Solender, “McCarthy Walks Back Saying Trump ‘Bears Responsibility’ for Capitol Riot,” Forbes, July 29, 2021, forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2021/07/29/mccarthy-walks-back-saying-trump-bears-responsibility-for-capitol-riot/?sh=47f6d6aa3c52.
Mitch McConnell has now: Andrew Solender, “McConnell Says He’ll ‘Absolutely’ Support Trump if He’s the GOP Nominee in 2024,” Forbes, February 25, 2021, forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2021/02/25/mcconnell-says-hell-absolutely-support-trump-if-hes-the-gop-nominee-in-2024/?sh=7159dcd111e3.
Lindsey Graham, for his part: Glenn Thrush, Jo Becker, and Danny Hakim, “Tap Dancing with Trump: Lindsey Graham’s Quest for Relevance,” New York Times, August 14, 2021, nytimes.com/2021/08/14/us/politics/lindsey-graham-donald-trump.html.
As a report from the nonpartisan: Protect Democracy, States United Democracy Center, and Law Forward, A Democracy Crisis in the Making: How State Legislatures are Politicizing, Criminalizing, and Interfering with Election Administration (Washington: Protect Democracy, 2021).
And even with these bills: Tim Alberta, “The Michigan Republican Who Stopped Trump,” Politico, November 24, 2020, politico.com/newsletters/politico-nightly/2020/11/24/the-michigan-republican-who-stopped-trump-490984.
“I was coming”: Chris Hollins, in discussion with Sam Koppelman, July 2021.
The job, they explained: Hollins, in discussion with Koppelman.
“Being able to”: Hollins, in discussion with Koppelman.
“And for as…” Hollins, in discussion with Koppelman.
On his first: Hollins, in discussion with Koppelman.
This was Texas: For a comprehensive history, see again Eric Foner, The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution (Canada: W. W. Norton, 2019).
It was also: See especially Ari Berman, Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America (New York: Picador, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016).
Paying election workers: Hollins, in discussion with Koppelman.
At the time: Hollins, in discussion with Koppelman.
At one point: Jolie McCullough, “Nearly 127K Harris County Drive-Thru Votes Appear Safe After Federal Judge Rejects GOP-Led Texas Lawsuit,” Texas Tribune, November 2, 2020.
By the time: Emma Schkloven, “Meet County Clerk Chris Hollins, the Man Fighting for Your Right to Vote,” Houstonia, November 3, 2020, houstoniamag.com/news-and-city-life/2020/11/meet-harris-county-clerk-chris-hollins.
And when the polls: Andrew Schneider, “In Texas, Efforts to Make Voting Harder Has Some Worried in Harris County,” Houston Public Media, July 19, 2021.
This included one couple: Hollins, in discussion with Koppelman.
“It was truly”: Hollins, in discussion with Koppelman.
In fact, Texas Republicans: Emma Platoff, “Democrats’ Hopes of Flipping Texas Again Fall Short as Republicans Dominate the State’s 2020 Elections,” Texas Tribune, November 4, 2020.
In Germany, weeks: Jennifer S. Rosenberg and Margaret Chen, “Expanding Democracy: Voter Registration Around the World,” Brennan Center for Justice, 2009.
And for all: Kevin Morris et al., “Automatic Voter Registration,” Brennan Center for Justice, April 11, 2019, brennancenter.org/issues/ensure-every-american-can-vote/voting-reform/automatic-voter-registration.
This has real: “Domenico Montanaro, “Despite Record Turnout, 80 Million Americans Didn’t Vote,” NPR, December 15, 2020; Medill School of Journalism/Ipsos Poll, “Non-Voters in 2020 U.S. Election” (Washington, D.C., 2020).
If the rest: Danielle Root and Liz Kennedy, “Increasing Voter Participation in America: Policies to Drive Participation and Make Voting More Convenient,” Center for American Progress, July 2018, 3.
One of these: Wendy Underhill, “Preregistration for Young Voters,” National Conference of State Legislatures, June 28, 2021.
In Georgia, one: Underhill, “Preregistration for Young Voters.”
That may not: Georgia Board of Elections, General Election—November 3, 2020—Recount (December 7, 2020), published by Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, results.enr.clarityelections.com/GA/107231/web.264614/#/summary.
But that same year: Tim Mak, “Over 1 Million Florida Felons Win Right to Vote with Amendment 4,” NPR, November 7, 2018, npr.org/2018/11/07/665031366/over-a-million-florida-ex-felons-win-right-to-vote-with-amendment-4.
The ACLU and Freedom Partners: John Lantigua, “The Ability to Vote Is Not a Partisan Issue—Just Ask the Koch Brothers,” ACLU Florida, October 12, 2018, aclufl.org/en/news/ability-vote-not-partisan-issue-just-ask-koch-brothers.
sixteen months after the referendum: Patricia Mazzei and Michael Wines, “How Republicans Undermined Ex-Felon Voting Rights in Florida,” New York Times, September 17, 2020, nytimes.com/2020/09/17/us/florida-felons-voting.html.
At this point: Amy Gardner and Lori Rozsa, “In Florida, Felons Must Pay Court Debts Before They Can Vote. But with No System to Do So, Many Have Found It Impossible,” Washington Post, May 13, 2020, washingtonpost.com/politics/in-florida-felons-must-pay-court-debts-before-they-can-vote-but-with-no-system-to-do-so-many-have-found-it-impossible/2020/05/13/08ed05be-906f-11ea-9e23-6914ee410a5f_story.html.
Across the country: Jean Chung, Nicole D. Porter, and Nazgol Ghandnoosh, “Voting Rights in the Era of Mass Incarceration: A Primer,” The Sentencing Project, July 28, 2021, sentencingproject.org/publications/felony-disenfranchisement-a-primer/.
And these Americans: Chung et al., “Voting Rights in the Era of Mass Incarceration.”
In five states: “Early Voting in-Person Voting,” National Conference of State Legislatures, June 11, 2021, ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/early-voting-in-state-elections.aspx; Michael Ray, “How Does the Electoral College Work?,” Encyclopedia Britannica, britannica.com/story/how-does-the-electoral-college-work.
In fact, in: “Early Voting in-Person Voting,” National Conference of State Legislatures.
From Texas to Alaska: Root and Kennedy, “Increasing Voter Participation,” 4.
Thankfully, most states: Root and Kennedy, “Increasing Voter Participation.”
In fact, since: “Democracy Diverted: Polling Place Closures and the Right to Vote,” Leadership Conference Education Fund, September 2019, civilrightsdocs.info/pdf/reports/Democracy-Diverted.pdf; Klain et al., Waiting to Vote.
It was fifty-one: Stephen Fowler, “Why Do Nonwhite Georgia Voters Have to Wait in Line for Hours? Too Few Polling Places,” NPR, October 17, 2020, npr.org/2020/10/17/924527679/why-do-nonwhite-georgia-voters-have-to-wait-in-line-for-hours-too-few-polling-pl.
Historically, mail-in: “The Importance of Mail-in Ballots to Seniors,” National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, March 25, 2021, ncpssm.org/documents/older-americans-policy-papers/the-importance-of-mail-in-ballots-to-seniors/.
Colorado does this: Fowler, “Why Do Nonwhite Georgia Voters Have to Wait in Line for Hours?”
This would have: Jill Lepore, “Rock, Paper, Scissors: How We Used to Vote,” The New Yorker, October 6, 2008, newyorker.com/magazine/2008/10/13/rock-paper-scissors.
Not only would: Elizabeth M. Addonizio, Donald P. Green, and James M. Glaser, “Putting the Party Back into Politics: An Experiment Testing Whether Election Day Festivals Increase Voter Turnout,” PS: Political Science & Politics 40: 721–27.
If I were a Republican: Texas Secretary of State, Presidential Election, November 3, 2020, sos.state.tx.us/elections/historical/presidential.shtml.
The bill would: Texas Legislature, Relating to election integrity and security, including by preventing fraud in the conduct of elections in this state; increasing criminal penalties; creating criminal offenses; providing civil penalties, SB 1, 87th Legislature, 1st Special Session, introduced in August 6, 2021, capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/871/billtext/pdf/SB00001I.pdf.
“I know the play”: Gina Hinojosa, Twitter post, August 25, 2021, 1:01 a.m., twitter.com/GinaForAustin/status/1430394947337916416?s=20.
Gina was down: Gina Hinojosa, Facebook post, June 11, 2021, pages.facebook.com/GinaForAustin/photos/a.271575946284758/3877390209036629/?type=3&source=48.
But the eighty-two-year-old: Senfronia Thompson, in discussion with Sam Koppelman, September 2021.
“She would save”: Thompson, in discussion with Sam Koppelman.
“I was always”: Thompson, in discussion with Sam Koppelman.
“We have fought”: Senfronia Thompson, quoted by The Recount, Twitter post, July 13, 2021, 7:55 a.m., twitter.com/therecount/status/1414916344500326404?s=20.
He was pissed: Madison Hall and Grace Panetta, “The Texas Governor Said He Plans to Strip the Legislature’s Pay After Democrats Staged a Walkout to Prevent Restrictive Voting Laws from Passing,” Business Insider, May 31, 2021, businessinsider.com/texas-governor-strip-legislative-branch-of-pay-2021-5.
“I hugged my”: Trey Martinez Fischer, Twitter post, August 25, 2021, 3:30 p.m., twitter.com/TMFtx/status/1430613547118104583.
“We had jobs”: Trey Martinez Fischer, Twitter post, August 25, 2021, 3:30 p.m., twitter.com/TMFtx/status/1430613547118104583?s=20.
“Call it a mistake”: “Texas Governor Vows Action After Democrats Walk Out Over Voting Bill,” NPR, June 1, 2021.
They also abandoned: Judd Legum, “UPDATE: Something Extraordinary Is Happening in Texas,” Popular Information, June 15, 2021, popular.info/p/update-something-extraordinary-is.
Of course, there: Texas Legislature, Relating to election integrity and security, SB 1, 87(1).
“If you think”: Eric Bradner and Dianne Gallagher, “Texas House Approves GOP Voting Restrictions Bill After Months of Democratic Delays,” CNN, August 27, 2021, cnn.com/2021/08/27/politics/texas-voting-bill/index.html.
A record number: Klain et al., Waiting to Vote.
“Action by a State”: City of Mobile v. Bolden, 446 U.S. 55 (1980).
That is why Justice Thurgood Marshall: City of Mobile v. Bolden.
On the bright side: See especially Berman, Give Us the Ballot.
And the Department of Justice: John Roberts to the attorney general, “Talking Points for White House Meeting on Voting Rights Act,” January 26, 1982, John G. Roberts, Jr., Misc., RG 60 Department of Justice, Box 30, National Archives at College Park.
This was a man: Emma Schkloven, “Meet County Clerk Chris Hollins, the Man Fighting for Your Right to Vote,” Houstonia, November 3, 2020, houstoniamag.com/news-and-city-life/2020/11/meet-harris-county-clerk-chris-hollins.
Across the country: Berman, Give Us the Ballot, 155.
Here’s how this would work: U.S. Congress, House, John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021, HR 4, 117th Cong., 1st sess., introduced in House August 17, 2021, congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/4/text.
tens of millions of Americans: See especially Richard Sobel, “The High Cost of ‘Free’ Photo Voter Identification Cards,” (Cambridge: Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School, 2014), 2.
You also don’t: Brennan Center for Justice, Citizens Without Proof: A Survey of Americans’ Possession of Documentary Proof of Citizenship and Photo Identification, 3; Zoltan Hajnal, Nazita Lajevardi, and Lindsay Nielson, “Voter Identification Laws and the Suppression of Minority Votes” (University of California San Diego, 2016), 16, pages.ucsd.edu/~zhajnal/page5/documents/voterIDhajnaletal.pdf.
What’s most absurd: Klain et al., Waiting to Vote.
“If you tell a great lie”: Quoted in Michael J. Klarman, “The Degradation of American Democracy—and the Court,” Harvard Law Review 134, no. 1 (November 2020): 13.
Which is exactly: Chris Cillizza, “1 in 3 Americans Believe the ‘Big Lie,’ ” CNN, June 21, 2021, cnn.com/2021/06/21/politics/biden-voter-fraud-big-lie-monmouth-poll/index.html.
And an even greater number: Monmouth University Poll, “National: Public Supports Both Early Voting and Requiring Photo ID to Vote,” Monmouth University, 2021, monmouth.edu/polling-institute/documents/monmouthpoll_us_062121.pdf/.
In the lead-up: Ari Berman, “How the 2000 Election in Florida Led to a New Wave of Voter Disenfranchisement,” The Nation, July 28, 2015.
Al Gore lost: Andrew Glass, “Bush Declared Electoral Victor over Gore, Dec 12, 2000,” Politico, November 12, 2018.
According to a Brennan Center report: Kevin Morris et al., “Purges: A Growing Threat to the Right to Vote,” Brennan Center for Justice, accessed July 20, 2018, brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/purges-growing-threat-right-vote.
Indeed, the number: Morris et al., “Purges.”
But these purges: Casey, “Ohio Was Set to Purge 235,000 Voters.”
Ohio, for instance: Nicholas Casey, “Ohio Was Set to Purge 235,000 Voters. It Was Wrong About 20%,” New York Times, October 14, 2019, nytimes.com/2019/10/14/us/politics/ohio-voter-purge.html.
In Texas, for: Morris et al., “Purges.”
And the first: U.S. Congress, House, For the People Act of 2021, HR 1, 117th Cong., 1st sess., introduced in House January 4, 2021, congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1.
Designed to be: “67 Percent of Americans Support H.R.1 For the People Act,” Data for Progress, January 22, 2021, dataforprogress.org/blog/2021/1/22/majority-support-hr1-democracy-reforms.
At a congressional hearing: Eric H. Holder, Jr., “Why We Need the For the People Act,” Medium, March 24, 2021, ericholder.medium.com/why-we-need-the-for-the-people-act-8c79afa36aec.
At the National Constitution Center: “President Joe Biden’s Speech on Voting Rights: TRANSCRIPT,” ABC News, July 13, 2021, abcnews.go.com/Politics/president-joe-bidens-speech-voting-rights-transcript/story?id=78827023.
In total, Senate Democrats: Ian Millhiser, “America’s Anti-Democratic Senate, by the Numbers,” Vox, November 6, 2020.
The half of: See especially Millhiser, “America’s Anti-Democratic Senate”; and “The Senate Is an Irredeemable Institution,” Data for Progress, December 17, 2019.
So much for: “The Senate,” Data for Progress, 5.
On the eve: Adam Jentleson, Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy (New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2021), 25.
The other house: “The Major Debates at the Constitutional Convention,” Constitutional Rights Foundation, 2009.
When this proposal: “Major Debates,” Constitutional Rights Foundation.
At first, Madison: Jentleson, Kill Switch, 26.
Back then, the: Jonathan Chait, “The Senate Is America’s Most Structurally Racist Institution,” New York Magazine, August 10, 2020.
Indeed, David Leonhardt: David Leonhardt, “The Senate: Affirmative Action for White People,” New York Times, October 14, 2014.
Perhaps it’s no: See especially Daniel C. Bowen and Christopher J. Clark, “Revisiting Descriptive Representation in Congress: Assessing the Effect of Race on the Constituent–Legislator Relationship,” Political Research Quarterly 67, no. 3 (2014): 695–707; and Jennifer R. Garcia and Katherine Tate, “Race, Ethnicity, and Politics: Controversies and New Directions,” in New Directions in American Politics, ed. Raymond La Raja (New York: Routledge Press, 2013).
After all, in: Jens Manuel Krogstad, “Americans Broadly Support Legal Status for Immigrants Brought to the U.S. Illegally as Children,” Pew Research Center, June 17, 2020, pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/06/17/americans-broadly-support-legal-status-for-immigrants-brought-to-the-u-s-illegally-as-children/.
It’s also worth: Todd N. Tucker, Fixing the Senate: Equitable and Full Representation for the 21st Century (New York: Roosevelt Institute, 2019), 9.
Tucker goes on: Tucker, Fixing the Senate.
“This is one”: “The Federalist Papers: No. 22,” Avalon Project at Yale Law School, avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed22.asp.
In Federalist No. 58: “The Federalist Papers: No. 58,” Avalon Project at Yale Law School, avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed58.asp.
Now, there were a few: See especially Jentleson, Kill Switch.
As Jentleson writes: Jentleson, Kill Switch, 70.
What may be surprising: Jentleson, Kill Switch, 3.
they only did so after a filibuster: David Smith, “Rand Paul Stalls Bill That Would Make Lynching a Federal Hate Crime,” Guardian, June 11, 2020, theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/11/rand-paul-lynching-hate-crime-bill-limbo.
Which, by this point: Jentleson, Kill Switch, 7.
As Ezra Klein: Ezra Klein, “The Definitive Case for Ending the Filibuster,” Vox, October 1, 2020, vox.com/21424582/filibuster-joe-biden-2020-senate-democrats-abolish-trump.
But generally speaking: “The Federalist Papers: No. 22,” Avalon Project at Yale Law School, avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed22.asp.
If that sounds: “State Population Totals and Components of Change: 2010–2019,” Census.gov (U.S. Census Bureau), accessed November 17, 2021, census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/popest/2010s-state-total.html#par_textimage_1574439295.
There is no: U.S. Const. art. V, § 1, cl. 1.
Because Washingtonians and Puerto Ricans: Klein, “The Definitive Case for Ending the Filibuster.”
But if, for: Kyle Blaine and Veronica Stracqualursi, “Biden Says He Supports Filibuster Carve-out for Voting Rights,” CNN, December 23, 2021, cnn.com/2021/12/23/politics/joe-biden-filibuster-voting-rights/index.html.
As Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia: “Warnock Calls for Changes to Filibuster in Order to Preserve Voting Rights,” December 14, 2021, twitter.com/PodSaveAmerica/status/1470892645631332368?s=20.
The first is: Klein, “The Definitive Case for Ending the Filibuster.”
Klein explains: Klein, “The Definitive Case for Ending the Filibuster.”
“The line was”: Love Caesar, in discussion with Sam Koppelman, September 2021.
This is because: Hayden DuBlois, “In Defense of Gerrymandering,” Manchester Journal (Vermont), March 24, 2015, manchesterjournal.com/archives/in-defense-of-gerrymandering/article_46191b03-d107-59d8-812f-c4443399112e.html.
According to Caesar: Caesar, in discussion with Sam Koppelman.
“There was a”: Caesar, in discussion with Sam Koppelman.
And the year: Rucho v. Common Cause, 588 U.S. __ (2019).
And Caesar says: Caesar, in discussion with Sam Koppelman.
And in 2011: Eric Holder, “Why We Need the For the People Act,” Medium, March 24, 2021, ericholder.medium.com/why-we-need-the-for-the-people-act-8c79afa36aec.
In 2012, after: David Daley, Ratf**ked: The True Story Behind the Secret Plan to Steal America’s Democracy (New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2017), 182.
And according to: Alex Tausanovitch, “The Impact of Partisan Gerrymandering,” Center for American Progress, October 1, 2019, americanprogress.org/issues/democracy/news/2019/10/01/475166/impact-partisan-gerrymandering/; David A. Lieb, “GOP Won More Seats in 2018 than Suggested by Vote Share,” Associated Press, March 21, 2019.
And in 2020: Sophie Andrews et al., “2020 House Tracker,” The Cook Political Report, accessed June 2021, cookpolitical.com/2020-house-vote-tracker.
And it’s how: Chris Abele, “90 Percent of Americans ‘Support Universal Background Checks’ for Gun Purchases,” Politifact, October 2, 2017, politifact.com/factchecks/2017/oct/03/chris-abele/do-90-americans-support-background-checks-all-gun-/.
In fact, a poll: “America Goes to the Polls 2018: Voter Turnout and Election Policy in the 50 States,” America Goes to the Polls, March 2019, nonprofitvote.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/america-goes-polls-2018.pdf, 28.
independent redistricting commissions: “Redistricting Commissions: Congressional Plans,” National Conference of State Legislatures, July 12, 2021, ncsl.org/research/redistricting/redistricting-commissions-congressional-plans.aspx.
Now, it’s worth: Michael Gonchar and Nicole Daniels, “Is the Electoral College a Problem? Does It Need to Be Fixed?,” New York Times, October 8, 2020, nytimes.com/2020/10/08/learning/is-the-electoral-college-a-problem-does-it-need-to-be-fixed.html.
for several reasons: James Madison, “Federalist No. 10,” in The Federalist Papers, ed. Robert A. Rutland, Charles F. Hobson, William M. E. Rachal, and Frederika J. Teute (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977), 263–70.
James Wilson, a delegate: Wilfred Codrington III, “The Electoral College’s Racist Origins,” The Atlantic, November 17, 2019, theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/11/electoral-college-racist-origins/601918/.
But another Founding Father: Robert A. Rutland, Charles F. Hobson, William M. E. Rachal, and Frederika J. Teute, eds., The Papers of James Madison, vol. 10, 27 May 1787–3 March 1788 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977), 107–8.
This, once again: Akhil Reed Amar, “The Troubling Reason the Electoral College Exists,” Time, November 8, 2016, time.com/4558510/electoral-college-history-slavery/.
And the election of 1800: Jeffrey Davis, “How Donald Trump Could Steal the Election,” The Atlantic, March 29, 2020, theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/coronavirus-election/608989/.
The American people: Megan Brenan, “61% of Americans Support Abolishing the Electoral College,” Gallup, September 24, 2020, news.gallup.com/poll/320744/americans-support-abolishing-electoral-college.aspx.
An amendment to abolish: Kurtis Lee, “In 1969, Democrats and Republicans United to Get Rid of the Electoral College. Here’s What Happened,” Los Angeles Times, December 19, 2016.
Already, fifteen states: Nicole Goodkind, “Colorado Joins 15 States in Favor of Popular Vote in Presidential Elections,” Fortune, November 5, 2020, fortune.com/2020/11/05/colorado-national-popular-vote-compact-electoral-college/.
And he was right: Andy Sullivan and Michael Martina, “In Recorded Call, Trump Pressures Georgia Official to ‘Find’ Votes to Overturn Election,” Reuters, January 3, 2021, reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-trump/in-recorded-call-trump-pressures-georgia-official-to-find-votes-to-overturn-election-idUSKBN2980MG.
How, I kept asking: Jose A. DelReal, “Voter Turnout in 2014 Was the Lowest Since WWII,” Washington Post, November 10, 2014, washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2014/11/10/voter-turnout-in-2014-was-the-lowest-since-wwii/.
In the years since: Trump v. Hawaii, 585 U.S. __ (2018); Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, 573 U.S. 682 (2014).
And I don’t: Peter Baker and Maggie Haberman, “Trump Selects Amy Coney Barrett to Fill Ginsburg’s Seat on the Supreme Court,” New York Times, September 25, 2020.
The theory was: Alexander Hamilton, “The Federalist Papers: No. 78,” Avalon Project, avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed78.asp.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, for instance: “Supreme Court Nominations (1789–Present),” U.S. Senate, November 10, 2020, senate.gov/legislative/nominations/SupremeCourtNominations1789present.htm.
That’s why from: Frederick A. O. Schwarz, “Saving the Supreme Court,” Brennan Center for Justice, September 13, 2019, brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/saving-supreme-court.
People didn’t live: Schwarz, “Saving the Supreme Court.”
And the justices themselves: Schwarz, “Saving the Supreme Court.”
And second, I: Maggie Jo Buchanan, “The Need for Supreme Court Limits,” Center for American Progress, August 3, 2020, americanprogress.org/issues/courts/reports/2020/08/03/488518/need-supreme-court-term-limits/.
And the people: Adam Rosenblatt, “Fix the Court: Agenda of Key Findings,” Fix the Court, May 2020, fixthecourt.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/PSB-May-2020-key-findings-TL.pdf.
The average tenure: David Fishbaum, “The Supreme Court Has a Longevity Problem, Term Limits on Justices Won’t Solve It,” Harvard Business Review, June 13, 2018, hbr.org/2018/07/the-supreme-court-has-a-longevity-problem-but-term-limits-on-justices-wont-solve-it.
The tragedy: Andrew Prokop, “Joe Manchin Reelected in West Virginia: The Most Conservative Senate Democrat Survives,” Vox, November 7, 2018, vox.com/2018/11/6/18049648/election-results-west-virginia-joe-manchin-wins.
It’s infuriating: Adam Jentleson, “How to Stop the Minority-Rule Doom Loop,” The Atlantic, April 12, 2021, theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/04/how-stop-minority-rule-doom-loop/618536/.
As President Obama: “Transcript: Barack Obama’s DNC Speech,” CNN, August 20, 2020, cnn.com/2020/08/19/politics/barack-obama-speech-transcript/index.html.
Because unlike Luther: Sean Collins, “Rep. John Lewis’s Voting Rights Legacy Is in Danger,” Vox, June 18, 2020.
As Cody Keenan: Cody Keenan, Convocation Address for Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University, June 23, 2018.