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John Lewis speaking in front of the Supreme Court.
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Litigating the Line Between Past and Present

The Supreme Court is about to take up another blockbuster voting rights case. At its core is a struggle over the limits of history.
by Sara Mayeux on September 29, 2017

Women's Suffrage @100

We date the expansion of voting rights to women in 1920, but the real story is a lot more complex.
by Linda Gordon via Public Books on September 22, 2017

I Tried to Help Black People Vote. Jeff Sessions Tried to Put Me in Jail

Jeff Sessions tried to jail an activist couple trying to ensure the black residents of Alabama the right to vote.
by Evelyn Turner via USA Today on February 7, 2017

The Racist Roots of Virginia's Felon Disenfranchisement

A century ago, the commonwealth's leaders weren't circumspect about their motives.
by Matt Ford via The Atlantic on April 27, 2016

50 Years After Bloody Sunday, Voting Rights Are Under Attack

The right to vote is under the greatest threat since the passage of the Voting Rights Act.
by Ari Berman via The Nation on March 5, 2015

Though The Heavens Fall, Part 1

The Texan newspaperman who was born into slavery and helped shape the history of civil rights.
by John Jeremiah Sullivan, Joel Finsel via Oxford American on February 26, 2015

Fifty Years After Bloody Sunday in Selma, Everything and Nothing Has Changed

Racism, segregation and inequality persist in this civil-rights battleground.
by Ari Berman via The Nation on February 25, 2015

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 via Democracy Journal on May 1, 2013

Lower the Voting Age!

Why 16 year-olds can help us heal our broken political system.
by Marco Roth via n+1 on November 1, 2008
Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Lyndon B. Johnson.
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The Border Presidents and Civil Rights

Three US presidents from the South’s borders—Truman, Eisenhower, and Johnson—worked against Southern politicians to support civil and voting rights.
by David Goldfield, Matthew Wills via JSTOR Daily on March 31, 2024
Rip Van Winkle painting by Albertis del Orient Browere, 1833.
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Age Before Duty

What role does age play in determining the status of equals?
by Darrin M. McMahon via HNN on March 19, 2024
Nixon signing the 26th amendment.
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America’s Age-Based Laws Are Archaic

Our age-based laws have never made sense. With modern science, they make even less sense.
by Holly N. S. White via Made by History on February 28, 2024
Map of New York state from 1813
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Suppressing the Black Vote in 1811

As more Black men gained the right to vote in New York, the state began to change its laws to reduce their power or disenfranchise them completely.
by Livia Gershon, Sarah L. H. Gronningsater via JSTOR Daily on February 23, 2024
Endesha Ida Mae Holland in the documentary “Freedom on My Mind.

“Freedom on My Mind”: A Symphony of Voices for Civil Rights

This 1994 documentary brings the passions and agonies of Mississippi’s voter-registration drive into the present tense.
by Richard Brody via The New Yorker on February 22, 2024
A drawing of James Longstreet, zoomed in on his eyes.

The Confederate General Whom All the Other Confederates Hated

James Longstreet became a champion of Reconstruction. Why?
by Eric Foner via The Atlantic on November 13, 2023
Ron DeSantis

DeSantis, Trump and The History of Treating D.C. Residents Like They Aren’t Americans

A history as intertwined with race as with partisanship.
by Gillian Brockell via Retropolis on August 8, 2023
Former President Donald Trump with his attorneys inside the courtroom during his arraignment at the Manhattan Criminal Court on April 4, 2023.

A Brief History of the Ku Klux Klan Acts

These 1870s laws to protect Black voters, ignored for decades, now being used against Trump.
by Joseph Kelly via The Conversation on August 4, 2023
Above view of residential areas in Richmond, Virginia.

How the Former Confederate Capital Slashed Black Voting Power, Overnight

Did Richmond violate the Voting Rights Act by adding thousands of White residents? The historic Supreme Court case foreshadowed today’s gerrymandering fights.
by Leila Barghouty via Retropolis on July 9, 2023
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist testifies to a House Financial Services subcommittee about minting coins in commemoration of former Chief Justice John Marshall on March 10, 2004.

There’s Unsettling New Evidence About William Rehnquist’s Views on Segregation

The Supreme Court Justice's defense of Plessy v. Ferguson in a 1993 memo continues to influence the court's interpretation of the 14th amendment.
by Dahlia Lithwick, Richard L. Hasen via Slate on June 1, 2023
Sketch of a gathering of African Americans gathering in a meetinghouse.

“Nativity Gives Citizenship”: Teaching Antislavery Constitutionalism Through Black Conventions

The demand of antislavery activists for accused fugitives to be guaranteed a jury trial was an implicit recognition of Black citizenship.
by Erik J. Chaput via Commonplace on March 7, 2023
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Voting Rights: A Retrospective

Voting, a right not initially enshrined in the Constitution, has been secured, revoked, and contested since the nation's founding era.

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