Black Votes Count: Political Empowerment in Mississippi After 1965 - Softcover

Parker, Frank R.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807842745 ISBN 13: 9780807842744

Publisher: University of North Carolina Press, 1990

Synopsis

Most Americans see the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as the culmination of the civil rights movement. When the law was enacted, black voter registration in Mississippi soared. Few black candidates won office, however. In this book, Frank Parker describes black Mississippians' battle for meaningful voting rights, bringing the story up to 1986, when Mike Espy was elected as Mississippi's first black member of Congress in this century.

To nullify the impact of the black vote, white Mississippi devised a political "massive resistance" strategy, adopting such disenfranchising devices as at-large elections, racial gerrymandering, making elective offices appointive, and revising the qualifications for candidates for public office. As legal challenges to these mechanisms mounted, Mississippi once again became the testing ground for deciding whether the promises of the Fifteenth Amendment would be fulfilled, and Parker describes the court battles that ensued until black voters obtained relief.

About this title

Book Description:

"[A] clear and detailed book."-- Los Angeles Times Book Review

From the Back Cover:

A fascinating account by one of America's leading civil rights lawyers of the historic struggle for the right to vote. Frank Parker instructs how the battle for democracy has shifted from denial to dilution and persuasively argues for continued vigilance.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0807842745
• ISBN 13: 9780807842744
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272