Transcript The Voting Rights Act of 1965: The First Foundation of

The Voting Rights Act of 1965:
The First Foundation of Today’s
Minority Politics
Political Science 61/
Chicano/Latino Studies 64
October 2, 2007
Welcome Second TA
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Chris Stout
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Office Hours: Tuesday 11-1
SST 734
Email: [email protected]
Joining – Kimberly Shella
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Email: [email protected]
Office Hours: Wednesday 2-3; Thursday 2-3
Office: SST 730
First Part of Class
We begin the class by analyzing the legal
foundations of contemporary minority politics
1.
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The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (Amended 1970, 1975,
1982, 1992, and 2006)
Immigration and Naturalization Amendments of 1965
(Thursday)
The emergence of and statutory recognition of panethnicity among contemporary immigrants, e.g. Latinos
and Asian Americans (next Tuesday)
“What’s import for students to
realize is that this is not ancient
history, people still alive were
involved in this, and that we still
have a long way to go.”
Stephen A. Schwerner
New York Times, January 8, 2005
Black (and Other Minority)
Voting Before the VRA
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Intimidation and exclusion
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Excerpt from Taylor Branch—Parting the Waters
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Threats
Intimidation
Violence
“Devices”
Consequence: Pre-1965 Black turnout very low
Manipulation
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Machines and minority voters
Latinos voted, but not freely
Voting: From State Control
to Federal Oversight
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Constitution: States regulate voting
“The right of citizens of the United States to vote
shall not be denied or abridged by the United
States or any state on account of race, color, or
previous condition of servitude”
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15th Amendment to the Constitution
States regulated voting with no federal oversight
until 1965
Today, most regulation remains at state and local
level (remember the 2000 election), but limited
federal oversight
Provisions of the VRA
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Prohibition of literacy tests
Federal supervision of registration/voting
Federal monitors could register voters
Pre-clearance or rule/districting changes
Judicial oversight transferred to federal court for
the D.C. circuit
Prohibition on “devices” to dilute Black votes
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Not part of VRA – 24th Amendment to the
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Constitution (1964) eliminates poll tax
How Did it Pass?
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Increasing Black activism, particularly youth
activism
Increasing violence against Blacks in
Southern states
Lyndon Johnson and the “Kennedy Legacy”
Originally applied quite narrowly
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Five years
Only applied to Southern states
Non-Black Minorities and
Expanded Focus (1975-82)
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VRA extended in 1975 to “language
minorities”
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Not to all immigrant-ethnic populations
VRA extended in 1982 to require drawing
of “majority-minority” districts, when
possible
Electoral politics became the primary focus
of minority community leaders
Long Term Impact of the
VRA
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African American vote
increased dramatically
Descriptive representation
up considerably
New immigrants from
covered groups immediately
protected
Foundation of white
partisan shift and national
Republican dominance after
1968
Focus for the Near Future
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Congress renewed VRA (over relatively little
debate) in 2006
Not clear that the Courts will continue to
hold that the imposition on states’
Constitutional authority over voting in
Constitutional
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Change in the composition of the Supreme Court
Advocates of minority voting see need for
expansion of VRA
In Sum
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VRA federalizes regulation of voting;
It targets oversight for Black, Latino, Asian,
and Native American voting;
It links the interests of these groups; and
It shifts the focus of racial and ethnic politics
to electoral politics
Questions for Next Time
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The current U.S. immigration law favors
immigrants with certain characteristics.
What are those characteristics?
What are the major demographic changes
that have resulted from the 1965
immigration law?