Free at Last to Vote: The Alabama Origins of the 1965 Voting Rights Act [Book Review]

Abstract

As key provisions of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965 were being considered for renewal in 2005-06, supporters and critics competed to eulogize the law. "The statute accomplished what it was beautifully designed to do: ending black disfranchisement in the Jim Crow South," cooed Abigail Thernstrom, a critic (Thernstrom 2005). It was "the twentieth century's noblest and most transformative law," George Will, a skeptic, chimed in (Will 2005). "[P]erhaps the most significant piece of legislation ever passed," enthused Judiciary Subcommittee Chairman Steve Chabot, an Ohio Republican supporter (Arnold 2005).

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