Michelle Alexander Quotes
In 2004, there were more black men disenfranchised than in 1870 - the year the 15th Amendment was ratified, prohibiting laws that deny the right to vote exclusively on the basis of race.
Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. The New Press, 2010, p. 175.
Preclearance was a requirement that any change in the voting or registration laws, rules or procedures needed to be approved by the Federal Justice Department. He was testifying about why preclearance was important and why it was placed in the Voting Rights Act every time it was reauthorized. See {635271} for what happens without preclearance.
At the time Negroes were prohibited from voting by a series of discriminatory criteria for voter registration and intimidation so that Blacks would not generally even try to register. But the Civil Rights movement changed tactics and organized large scale attempts at voter registration. Mayor Thompson and the white power structure of the town were not going to allow that. They had not only enlarged the police department but the city purchased an a small armed tank.
In the South racism was so extensive that Blacks were not allowed to even vote. Brooke had moved from the South to Massachusetts and there as in the North, Midwest and West, African Americans could vote. So the first time Brooke ever voted he was a candidate.
In the beginning of the 21st century, many republican state legislatures attempted to change the voting laws to eliminate the possibility of voter fraud which was not a serious practical problem in America. However, a consequence—some argue indented and some argue unintended—was that it was harder for certain groups of people to meet the new requirements and therefore was a de facto voter suppression for some people such as the very elderly, the homeless, and the poor. Many of these efforts were declared unconstitutional by the courts.
America is almost unique among nations in that the methods of elections are different in each state, but at the time even the right to vote was uniquely controlled by the states—even for Federal officials. Even in modern times individual states have controlled the right to vote in many instances. For example in some states convicted felons may not vote while in others they can.
Michelle Alexander is a writer, civil rights advocate, and visiting professor at Union Theological Seminary (New York City). She is best known for her 2010 book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, and is an opinion columnist for The New York Times.
