Voting: A How-to Guide

The history of suffrage in the U.S. is the story of a struggle to achieve this right by our society's marginalized groups. Examining the many features of the history of the right to vote--class, ethnicity, race, gender, religion, and age--the book explores the conditions under which American democracy has expanded and contracted over the years.

This book expands the understanding of how the Voting Rights Act came about by focusing on several key cases in Alabama that paved the way for this landmark legislation and the dramatic expansion of federal power in combating racist enforcement of voting laws.

The epic history of African American women's pursuit of political power -- and how it transformed America. This book recounts how African American women defied both racism and sexism to fight for the ballot, and how they wielded political power to secure the equality and dignity of all persons.

One of the greatest political battles in American history: the ratification of the constitutional amendment that granted women the right to vote. The opposing forces include politicians, liquor companies, railroad magnates, and a lot of racists who don't want black women voting. And then there are the "Antis"--women who oppose their own enfranchisement, fearing suffrage will bring about the moral collapse of the nation. They all converge in a boiling hot summer for a vicious face-off.

One of the most important tools wielded by advocates of minority voting rights has been the Voting Rights Act. This book explains the history and expansion of Indian voting rights, with an emphasis on seventy cases based on the Voting Rights Act and/or the Equal Protection Clause.

The author contrasts the outburst of voting rights reforms of the 1960s with earlier reforms and finds the modern actions, though more democratic in inspiration and substance, less democratic in effect. Elliott examines the results of reforms—proportional representation, reapportionment, quotas, and others—and concludes that they are as much examples of power guiding knowledge as of knowledge guiding power.