Bending toward justice the Voting Rights Act and the transformation of American democracy
In Bending Toward Justice, celebrated historian Gary May describes how black voters overcame centuries of bigotry to secure and preserve one of their most important rights as American citizens. The struggle that culminated in the passage of the Voting Rights Act was long and torturous, and only succ...
| Main Author: | May, Gary, 1944- |
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| Format: | Books Print Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
New York :
Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group,
[2013]
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| Subjects: |
| Summary: |
In Bending Toward Justice, celebrated historian Gary May describes how black voters overcame centuries of bigotry to secure and preserve one of their most important rights as American citizens. The struggle that culminated in the passage of the Voting Rights Act was long and torturous, and only succeeded because of the courageous work of local freedom fighters and national civil rights leaders - as well as, ironically, the opposition of Southern segregationists and law enforcement officials, who won public sympathy for the voting rights movement by brutally attacking peaceful demonstrators. But while the Voting Rights Act represented an unqualified victory over such forces of hate, May explains that its achievements remain in jeopardy. Many argue that the 2008 election of President Barack Obama rendered the act obsolete, yet recent years have seen renewed efforts to curb voting rights and deny minorities the act's hard-won protections. Legal challenges to key sections of the act may soon lead the Supreme Court to declare those protections unconstitutional. |
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| Physical Description: |
xix, 314 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm |
| Bibliography: |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 257-301) and index. |
| ISBN: |
9780465018468 (hbk. : alk. paper) 0465018467 (hbk. : alk. paper) |
| Author Notes: |
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