Defying Disfranchisement: Black Voting Rights Activism in the Jim Crow South, 1890-1908 - Softcover

Riser, R. Volney

Softcover

ISBN 10: 080715010X ISBN 13: 9780807150108

Publisher: LSU Press, 2013

Synopsis

In Defying Disfranchisement, R. Volney Riser documents a number of lawsuits challenging various requirements―including literacy tests, poll taxes, and white primaries―designed primarily to strip African American men of their right to vote in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Twelve of these cases wended their way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and that body coldly ignored the systematic disfranchisement of black southerners. Nevertheless, as Riser shows, the attempts themselves were stunning and demonstrate that even at one of their bleakest hours, African Americans sheltered and nurtured a hope that would lead to wholesale changes in the American legal and political landscape.

About this title

About the Author

R. Volney Riser is cochair of the Department of History and Social Science at the University of West Alabama in Livingston.

From the Back Cover

"A book that could easily be read and taught in conjunction with the great works that focus on civil rights in the United States." -- Journal of American History

"This study contributes to the common knowledge of black suffrage issues during the Jim Crow era by approaching the topic from a new angle. It proves that there was much local black voting rights activism prior to the formation of the NAACP, and it traces the story with engaging narrative, thorough primary source documentation, and excellent legal analysis." -- American Historical Review

"A unique and valuable contribution to African American and southern history." -- Journal of Southern History

In Defying Disfranchisement, R. Volney Riser documents a number of lawsuits challenging various requirements -- including literacy tests, poll taxes, and white primaries -- designed primarily to strip African American men of their right to vote in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Twelve of these cases wended their way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and that body coldly ignored the systematic disfranchisement of black southerners. Nevertheless, as Riser shows, the attempts themselves were stunning and demonstrate that even at one of their bleakest hours, African Americans sheltered and nurtured a hope that would lead to wholesale changes in the American legal and political landscape.

R. Volney Riser is editor of the Alabama Review and chair of the department of history and social sciences at the University of West Alabama in Livingston.

Edition details

• Publisher: LSU Press
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 080715010X
• ISBN 13: 9780807150108
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336