Voting and Civil Rights - Firebird Film Festival 2018 - Justice - Learning Resources Division at University of the District of Columbia

A Hard Won History, Protecting Our Voting and Civil Rights

Saturday, November 3rd

Time : Doors open at 4:30PM – Film starts at 5:00 PM

Location: UDC Theatre of the Arts

Unforgiven: How This Man in Florida Lost his Voting Rights

Prior to losing his voting rights, Roderick Kemp had been politically active in South Florida, helping to register voters and volunteering for Democratic political campaigns like Barack Obama’s in 2008 and 2012. Directed by Adeel Ahmed and Ashwin Gandbhir, Unforgiven tells the story of Kemp’s disenfranchisement. Kemp was informed in 2016 that his voting rights had been revoked due to a felony conviction in 1986, when he was 29, for cocaine possession. It’s unclear why the state took 30 years to revoke his rights due to that conviction. Three months after being featured in Unforgiven, Kemp received a letter from Gov. Rick Scott restoring his voting rights. “There was a brief, one-sentence cover letter that said ‘Enclosed is a certificate showing your rights are being restored,’” Out of an estimated 6.1 million Americans, and 1.7 million Floridians disenfranchised due to felony convictions, only about 2,300 cases have been approved for rights restoration since Gov. Scott took office in 2011.

Saturday, November 3rd

Time : Doors open at 5:00PM Film Starts at 5:30 PM

Location: UDC Theatre of the Arts

Selma

A chronicle of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s campaign to secure equal voting rights via an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965. Directed by Ava Duvernay, Selma is the unforgettable true story chronicling the tumultuous three-month period in 1965, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a dangerous campaign to secure equal voting rights in the face of violent opposition. The epic march from Selma to Montgomery culminated in President Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most significant victories for the civil rights movement. Selmatells the story of how the revered leader and visionary Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and his brothers and sisters in the movement prompted change that forever altered history.

Summary

Felony Disenfranchisement

In the late first decade of the twenty-first century, nearly 5 million Americans—or one in forty-three adults—are currently without voting rights as a result of a felony conviction. Forty-eight states and Washington, DC, deny the right to vote to felony offenders. Only Maine and Vermont do not impose felony disenfranchisement. Although there is variety in felony disenfranchisement legislative schemes, such legislation may generally be classified under three categories: permanent, modified permanent, or restorative disenfranchisement.

In a permanent disenfranchisement jurisdiction, a felony offender is denied the right to vote for life. Three states—Florida, Kentucky, and Virginia—deny the right to vote to all ex-offenders, and can thus be classified as permanent disenfranchisement jurisdictions. In these jurisdictions, the restoration of voting rights is still possible, but only through a pardon by the governor or by the action of the probation or parole board. Twelve states are modified permanent jurisdictions. Here, permanent disability is imposed only on certain classes of ex-offenders, and restoration may be subject to a waiting period.

In a restorative felony disenfranchisement jurisdiction, restoration is either automatic after incarceration, probation, or parole, or it is available after the ex-offender completes a designated process following incarceration, probation, or parole. The restorative process varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and it is often too cumbersome, and sometimes too expensive, for most ex-offenders to successfully complete.

Magee, R. K. (2013). Felony disenfranchisement. In P. L. Mason (Ed.), Encyclopedia of race and racism (2nd ed.). Farmington, MI: Gale.

Civil Rights

Civil rights are guarantees of equal social opportunities and equal protection under the law regardless of race, religion, or other personal characteristics. Examples of civil rights include the right to vote, the right to a fair trial, the right to government services, the right to a public education, and the right to access public facilities. Civil rights are an essential component of good governance; when someone is denied access to the opportunities of participation in political society, that person is being denied his or her civil rights. In contrast to civil liberties, which are freedoms that are secured by placing restraints on government, civil rights are secured by positive government action, often in the form of legislation. Civil rights laws attempt to guarantee full and equal citizenship for people who have traditionally been discriminated against based on some group characteristic. When the enforcement of civil rights is found by many to be inadequate, a civil rights movement may emerge in order to call for equal application of the laws without discrimination.

Hamlin, R. (2007). Civil rights. In M. Bevir, Encyclopedia of governance. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications

Books

America Votes! by Benjamin E. Griffith (Editor); American Bar Association, Section of State and Local Government Law Staff (Contribution by)
ISBN: 9781634254229
Publication Date: 2016-09-07
The third edition of America Votes! is a timely resource for Sawyers, professors, election officials, and administrators, providing a snapshot of key election and voting rights issues from practitioners highly experienced in a wide variety of areas. Part 1 details the election administration processes, challenges, and opportunities at the local and national level. Included are chapters on the FEC, enforcing federal election law, using census data to prove citizenship, and administrative challenges for recounts, contests; and postelection audits. Part 2 details the Voting Rights Act and discusses rights of language-minority voters, voter suppression tactics including voter ID laws, immigration voting rights, and redistricting issues to watch during the current redistricting cycle. Part 3 details the challenges of redistricting and includes state legislative reapportionment, Section 2 vote-dilution litigation, and corporate districting and the Voting Rights Act. Book jacket.
Democracy for All by Ronald Hayduk
ISBN: 0415950724
Publication Date: 2006-01-13
First published in 2006. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Democracy Rising by Peter F. Lau
ISBN: 9780813159126
Publication Date: 2015-01-13
Considered by many historians to be the birthplace of the Confederacy, South Carolina experienced one of the longest and most turbulent Reconstruction periods of all the southern states. After the Civil War, white supremacist leadership in the state fiercely resisted the efforts of freed slaves to secure full citizenship rights and to remake society based upon an expansive vision of freedom forged in slavery and the crucible of war. Despite numerous obstacles, African Americans achieved remarkable social and political advances in the ten years following the war, including the establishment of the state's first publicly-funded school system and health care for the poor. Through their efforts, the state's political process and social fabric became more democratic. Peter F. Lau traces the civil rights movement in South Carolina from Reconstruction through the early twenty-first century. He stresses that the movement was shaped by local, national, and international circumstances in which individuals worked to redefine and expand the meaning and practice of democracy beyond the borders of their own state. Contrary to recent scholars who separate civil rights claims from general calls for economic justice, Lau asserts that African American demands for civil rights have been inseparable from broader demands for a redistribution of social and economic power. Using the tension between rights possession and rights application as his organizing theme, Lau fundamentally revises our understanding of the civil rights movement in America. In addition to considering South Carolina's pivotal role in the national civil rights movement, Lau offers a comprehensive analysis of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) during the height of its power and influence, from 1910 through the years following Brown v. Board of Education (1954). During this time, the NAACP worked to ensure the rights guaranteed to African Americans by the 14th and 15th amendments and facilitated the emergence of a broad-based movement that included many of the nation's rural and most marginalized people. By examining events that occurred in South Carolina and the impact of the activities of the NAACP, Democracy Rising upends traditional interpretations of the civil rights movement in America. In their place, Lau offers an innovative way to understand the struggle for black equality by tracing the movement of people, institutions, and ideas across boundaries of region, nation, and identity. Ultimately, the book illustrates how conflicts caused by the state's history of racial exclusion and discrimination continue to shape modern society.
I May Not Get There with You by Michael Eric Dyson
ISBN: 0684867761
Publication Date: 2000-01-17
A private citizen who transformed the world around him, Martin Luther King, Jr., was arguably the greatest American who ever lived. Now, after more than thirty years, few people understand how truly radical he was. In this groundbreaking examination of the man and his legacy, provocative author, lecturer, and professor Michael Eric Dyson restores King's true vitality and complexity and challenges us to embrace the very contradictions that make King relevant in today's world.
Keeping down the Black Vote by Frances Fox Piven; Lorraine C. Minnite; Margaret Groarke; Adam Cohen (Foreword by)
ISBN: 1595583548
Publication Date: 2009-02-24
Today in the US, more than 40 years after the Voting Rights Act of 1965 demolished bars to voting for African Americans, the effort to prevent black people - as well as Latinos and the poor in general - from voting is experiencing a resurgence. A myriad of new tactics, some of which adopt the mantle of election reform', has evolved to suppress the vote. In this sharply argued new study, three leading experts on party politics and elections demonstrate that the political system is as focused on stopping people from voting as on getting Americans to go to the polls.'
Locked Out by Jeff Manza; Christopher Uggen
ISBN: 0195149327
Publication Date: 2006-03-30
5.4 million Americans--1 in every 40 voting age adults-- are denied the right to participate in democratic elections because of a past or current felony conviction. In several American states, 1 in 4 black men cannot vote due to a felony conviction. In a country that prides itself onuniversal suffrage, how did the United States come to deny a voice to such a large percentage of its citizenry? What are the consequences of large-scale disenfranchisement--both for election outcomes, and for public policy more generally? Locked Out exposes one of the most important, yet littleknown, threats to the health of American democracy today. It reveals the centrality of racial factors in the origins of these laws, and their impact on politics today. Marshalling the first real empirical evidence on the issue to make a case for reform, the authors' path-breaking analysis willinform all future policy and political debates on the laws governing the political rights of criminals.
The Politics of Black Empowerment by James Jennings
ISBN: 9780814323182
Publication Date: 2000-08-01
In analyzing Black politics since the late 1960s, James Jennings focuses on both the behavioral aspects, such as individual and group characteristics of voting and nonvoting and elections, as well as more fundamental philosophical and cultural questions regarding Black politics. This study examines how the "traditional" face of Black politics and electoral activism interacts with a growing "progressive" face of Black politics. While traditional Black political activists seek access or political incorporation, another group aims for power sharing. The traditional approach is sometimes satisfied with merely replacing white politicians with Blacks, but the progressive constituency focuses on fundamentally changing the whole economic and political pie. Activists desirous of Black empowerment are pursuing a political and economic orientation that goes beyond programs based on access to American institutional arrangements and attempting to change or alter given political arrangements and social relations between Blacks and whites on the basis of changing the social structure and the distribution of wealth and power. Based on interviews with Black and Latino activists in several big cities as well as on a review of the literature and the Black newspapers around the country, The Politics of Black Empowerment describes the characteristics of Black empowerment activism in America.
Protest at Selma by David J. Garrow
ISBN: 0300024983
Publication Date: 2015-09-08
"The work of David J. Garrow is more than a day-by-day account of how the historic Voting Rights Act of 1965 came into being. It is also a skillful analysis of the dynamics of protest activity and more particularly of the ways in which successful protesters deliberately use the mass media to influence uninvolved audiences." -American Historical Review "A valuable book, because it is a reminder of both the heroism and the brutality displayed in the great civil rights crusade." -David Herbert Donald, The New Republic "One of the most comprehensive studies yet of a single campaign within the civil-rights movement." -Pat Watters, New York Times Book Review "An excellent fusion of important theoretical constructs with careful and thoughtful empirical analysis. A desirable addition to most college libraries, useful for a variety of courses....Thoroughly documented. Recommended." -Choice
Quiet Revolution in the South by Chandler Davidson (Editor); Bernard N. Grofman (Editor)
ISBN: 0691021082
Publication Date: 1994-06-16
This work is the first systematic attempt to measure the impact of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, commonly regarded as the most effective civil rights legislation of the century. Marshaling a wealth of detailed evidence, the contributors to this volume show how blacks and Mexican Americans in the South, along with the Justice Department, have used the act and the U.S. Constitution to overcome the resistance of white officials to minority mobilization. The book tells the story of the black struggle for equal political participation in eight core southern states from the end of the Civil War to the 1980s--with special emphasis on the period since 1965. The contributors use a variety of quantitative methods to show how the act dramatically increased black registration and black and Mexican-American office holding. They also explain modern voting rights law as it pertains to minority citizens, discussing important legal cases and giving numerous examples of how the law is applied. Destined to become a standard source of information on the history of the Voting Rights Act, Quiet Revolution in the South has implications for the controversies that are sure to continue over the direction in which the voting rights of American ethnic minorities have evolved since the 1960s.
The Unfinished Agenda of the Selma-Montgomery Voting Rights March by Black Issues in Higher Education Editors; Tavis Smiley (Introduction by); Y. Bihe (Editor)
ISBN: 0471710377
Publication Date: 2005-02-01
WHY A 56-MILE WALK FOR FREEDOM IN 1965 STILL CHALLENGES AMERICA TODAY THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965 WAS THE CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT, FOREVER CHANGING POLITICS IN AMERICA. NOW, FOR THE FIRST TIME, VOICES OF THE ERA, ALONG WITH SOME OF TODAY'S MOST INFLUENTIAL WRITERS, SCHOLARS, AND SOCIAL ACTIVISTS, COMMEMORATE THE STRUGGLE AND EXAMINE WHY THE BATTLE MUST STILL BE WON. ""One of the difficult lessons we have learned is that you cannot depend on American institutions to function without pressure. Any real change in the status quo depends on continued creative action to sharpen the conscience of the nation.""--MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. ""As long as half our eligible voters exercise the right that so many in Selma marched and died for, we've got a very long bridge to cross.""--BILL CLINTON ""I would hope that students today can learn from Selma to acquire a better understanding of how oppressed people with limited resources can free themselves and make the world better.""--CLAYBORNE CARSON, STANFORD UNIVERSITY
Voting and the Spirit of American Democracy by Donald W. Rogers (Editor)
ISBN: 0252019180
Publication Date: 1992-03-01
This overview of the historical development of the right to vote is the first to appear in over twenty years. Writing in a succinct and lively manner, leading historians and political scientists trace the history of American voting from the colonial period to the present, incorporating the latest scholarship on suffrage reform, woman suffrage, black voting rights, and electoral participation. They explain how voting practices changed over time as the result of broad historical forces such as economic growth, demographic shifts, the results of war, and the rise of political reform movements. By viewing voting within a broad historical context, this book distinguishes itself from narrow, specialized studies, making it a valuable volume for students and general readers.
Voting Rights--and Wrongs by Abigail Thernstrom
ISBN: 0844742694
Publication Date: 2009-06-16
The 1965 Voting Rights Act is the crown jewel of American civil rights legislation. Its passage marked the death knell of the Jim Crow South. But that was the beginning, not the end, of an important debate on race and representation in American democracy. When is the distribution of political power racially fair? Who counts as a representative of black and Hispanic interests? How we answer such questions shapes our politics and public policy in profound but often unrecognized ways. The actOs original aim was simple: Give African Americans the same political opportunity enjoyed by other citizens_the chance to vote, form political coalitions, and elect the candidates of their choice. But in the racist South, it soon became clear that access to the ballot would not, by itself, provide the political opportunity the statute promised. Most southern whites were unwilling to vote for black candidates, and southern states were ready to alter electoral systems to maintain white supremacy. In this provocative book, Abigail Thernstrom argues that southern resistance to black political power began a process by which the act was radically revised both for good and ill. Congress, the courts, and the Justice Department altered the statute to ensure the election of blacks and Hispanics to legislative bodies ranging from school boards and county councils to the U.S. Congress. Proportional racial representation_equality of results rather than mere equal opportunity_became the revised aim of the act. Blacks came to be treated as politically different_entitled to inequality in the form of a unique political privilege. Majority-minority districts that reserved seats for blacks and Hispanics succeeded in integrating southern politics. By now, however, those districts may perversely limit the potential power of black officeholders. OMax-blackO districts typically elect candidates to the left of most voters; those officeholders rarely win in majority-white settings. Such race-conscious districting discourages the development of centrist, Opost-racialO candidates like Barack Obama (who was defeated when he stood for Congress in one such district). The Voting Rights Act has become a period piece that today serves to keep most black legislators clustered on the sidelines of American politics_precisely the opposite of what its framers intended. A radically revised law would better serve the political interests of all Americans_minority and white voters alike.
We Ain't What We Was by Frederick M. Wirt; Gary Orfield (Foreword by)
ISBN: 9780822318934
Publication Date: 1997-02-18
When officials of the U.S. Department of Justice came in 1961 to Panola County in the Mississippi delta, they found a closed society in which race relations had not altered significantly since Reconstruction. Much has changed, however, in Mississippi in the past three decades, as Frederick Wirt demonstrates in "We Ain't What We Was," a remarkable look inside the New South. In this follow-up to his highly praised 1970 study of Panola County, The Politics of Southern Equality, Wirt shows how the implementation of civil rights law over the past quarter-century has altered racial reality that in turn altered white perceptions, and thus behavior and attitudes in a section of the country where segregation and prejudice had been most thoroughly entrenched. Wirt uses multiple indicators--interviews with leaders, attitude tests of children, content analysis of newspapers, school records, and voting and job data--to record what has changed in the Deep South as a result of the 60s revolution in civil rights. Although racism continues to exist in Panola, Wirt maintains that the current generation of southerners is sharply distinguished from its predecessors, and he effectively documents the transformations in individuals and institutions. In a time of increasing popular challenges to the use of law in support of civil liberties, or the place of the federal government to effect necessary social change, this book testifies to the great changes, both public and personal, that were brought about by the strong implementation of civil rights law over thirty years ago. "We Ain't What We Was" shows that adaptation to change was not overnight, not final, but gradual and always persistent.

Databases

Black Abolitionist Papers This link opens in a new window
This primary source collection details the extensive work of African Americans to abolish slavery in the United States prior to the Civil War. Covering the period 1830-1865, the collection presents the massive, international impact of African American activism against slavery, in the writings and publications of the activists themselves.
Black Economic Empowerment: The National Negro Business League This link opens in a new window
Booker T. Washington, founder of the National Negro Business League, believed that solutions to the problem of racial discrimination were primarily economic, and that bringing African Americans into the middle class was the key. In 1900, he established the League "to promote the commercial and financial development of the Negro," and headed it until his death.
Black Nationalism and the Revolutionary Action Movement: The Papers of Muhammad Ahmad (Max Stanford) This link opens in a new window
This collection of RAM records reproduces the writings and statements of the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM) and its leaders. It also covers organizations that evolved from or were influenced by RAM and persons that had close ties to RAM. The most prominent organization that evolved from RAM was the African People’s Party.
Bush Presidency and Development and Debate Over Civil Rights Policy and Legislation This link opens in a new window
Contains materials on civil rights, the development of civil rights policy, and the debate over civil rights legislation during the administration of President George H.W. Bush and during his tenure as vice president. Contents include memoranda, talking points, correspondence, legal briefs, transcripts, news summaries, draft legislation, statements of administration policy (SAP’s), case histories, legislative histories and news-clippings covering a broad range of civil rights issues.
Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers This link opens in a new window
This site allows you to search and view newspaper pages from 1860-1922 and find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress as part of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).
Federal Response to Radicalism in the 1960s This link opens in a new window
Organized alphabetically by organization, this collection covers a wide range of viewpoints on political, social, cultural, and economic issues. It sheds light on internal organization, personnel, and activities of some of the most prominent American radical groups and their movements to change American government and society.
Federal Surveillance of African Americans, 1920-1984 This link opens in a new window
Between the early 1920s and early 1980s, the Justice Department and its Federal Bureau of Investigation engaged in widespread investigation of those deemed politically suspect. Prominent among the targets of this sometimes coordinated, sometimes independent surveillance were aliens, members of various protest groups, Socialists, Communists, pacifists, militant labor unionists, ethnic or racial nationalists, and outspoken opponents of the policies of the incumbent presidents.
Historical Newspapers: Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988), The This link opens in a new window
This historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers, and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events of the time.
Historical Newspapers in Washington This link opens in a new window
The Historical Newspapers in Washington project is part of the Washington State Library's program to make its rare, historical resources more accessible to students, teachers and citizens.
James Meredith, J. Edgar Hoover, and the Integration of the University of Mississippi This link opens in a new window
James Meredith was an African American who in 1962 was attempting to register at the all-white University of Mississippi. Meredith had the support of the federal government, which insisted that Mississippi honor the rights of all its citizens, regardless of race. Mississippi’s refusal led to a showdown between state and federal authorities and the storming of the campus by a segregationist mob. In the end, Ole Miss, the state of Mississippi, and the nation were forever changed.
Political Posters, Labadie Collection, University of Michigan This link opens in a new window
This database consists of images of those posters covering social protest movements such as Anarchism, Civil Liberties, Colonialism, Communism, Ecology, Labor, Pacifism, Sexual Freedom, Socialism, Women, and Youth/Student Protest. Some are from the first half of the 20th century, but the majority are from the 1960s and later.
We Were Prepared for the Possibility of Death: Freedom Riders in the South, 1961 This link opens in a new window
The Freedom Rides, and the violent reactions they provoked, bolstered the credibility of the Civil Rights Movement and called national attention to the violent disregard for the law that was used to enforce segregation in the southern United States. Riders were arrested for trespassing, unlawful assembly, and violating state and local Jim Crow laws, along with other alleged offenses.

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Firebird Film Festival 2018 - Justice

A Hard Won History, Protecting Our Voting and Civil Rights

A Hard Won History, Protecting Our Voting and Civil Rights

Saturday, November 3rd

Unforgiven: How This Man in Florida Lost his Voting Rights

Saturday, November 3rd

Selma

Summary

Felony Disenfranchisement

Civil Rights

Books

Databases

More Information

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