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Voting Rights: A Retrospective
Voting Rights: A Retrospective
Voting Rights: A Retrospective
This exhibit chronicles the ebb and flow of voting rights in America, from the Founding Era to the current day.
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Founding Era
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02
Reconstruction
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20
Women's Suffrage
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Civil Rights Movement
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Voting Rights Today
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Voting Rights: A Retrospective
Voting Rights Today
Voting Rights Today
Fighting to Vote
Voting rights are often associated with the Civil Rights Movement, but this fight extends throughout American history.
by
Michael Tomasky
American Democracy Is Only 55 Years Old—And Hanging by a Thread
Black civil-rights activists—and especially Black women—delivered on the promise of the Founding. Their victories are in peril.
by
Vann R. Newkirk II
A Dream Undone
Inside the 50-year campaign to roll back the Voting Rights Act.
by
Jim Rutenberg
How a Pivotal Voting Rights Act Case Broke America
In the five years since the landmark decision, the Supreme Court has set the stage for a new era of white hegemony.
by
Vann R. Newkirk II
Manchin and Sinema Have Their History Wrong
Senate Democrats who won’t give up the filibuster to secure voting rights are fooling themselves.
by
Jamelle Bouie
The Republican Choice
How a party spent decades making itself white.
by
Clare Malone
Why the Right to Vote is Not Enshrined in the Constitution
How voter suppression became a political weapon in American politics.
by
Sean Illing
,
Allan J. Lichtman
partner
A Post-Reconstruction Proposal That Would Have Restored Power to the People
Largely forgotten today, Albion W. Tourgée’s legislation could have prevented Moore v. Harper.
by
Brook Thomas
Who Counts?
A look at voter rights through political cartoons.
via
Massachusetts Historical Society
How the 2000 Election in Florida Led to a New Wave of Voter Disenfranchisement
A botched voter purge prevented thousands from voting—and empowered a new generation of voting-rights critics.
by
Ari Berman
History Frowns on Partisan Gerrymandering
On the eve of a major redistricting case at the Supreme Court, a look back at what the nation's founders would have thought.
by
Michael Waldman
,
Cliff Sloan
The Missing Right: A Constitutional Right to Vote
In the era of the voting wars, the right to vote is itself a subject of continued partisan, regional, and racial conflict.
by
Jonathan Soros
,
Mark Schmitt
The Racism of Confederate Monuments Extends to Voter Suppression
GOP-led state legislatures have not only prevented voters from exercising their rights as citizens, they have usurped local control to remove monuments legally.
by
Karen L. Cox
partner
Voter Fraud Isn’t a Problem in America. Low Turnout Is.
For centuries, voter fraud has been used as an excuse to restrict the vote.
by
Allan J. Lichtman
partner
Gerrymandering's Surprising History and Uncertain Future
Both parties play the redistricting game, redrawing electoral boundaries to lock down power.
via
Retro Report
Republicans Are Moving Rapidly to Cement Minority Rule. Blame the Constitution.
Democracy is in trouble, but a lawless coup isn’t the real threat.
by
Corey Robin
A 1980s Blueprint on How to Be a Leader
A new film shows how Harold Washington, Chicago’s first Black mayor, stood up to a majority-white city council to push through infrastructure improvements for all.
by
Brentin Mock
Why Republicans Won’t Shut Up About a 16-Year-Old Bipartisan Report on Election Reform
The Carter-Baker report was intended to strengthen Americans’ trust in the electoral process. It’s become a weapon for right-wing attacks on voting rights.
by
Matt Ford
When the South Was the Most Progressive Region in America
Elections in the late 1860s gave birth to real, if short-lived, interracial democracy—the likes of which America had never seen.
by
Ethan J. Kytle
,
Blain Roberts
partner
Suppressing Native American Voters
South Dakota has been called "the Mississippi of the North" for its long history of making voting hard for Native Americans.
by
Jean Schroedel
,
Artour Aslanian
,
Matthew Wills