The Voting Rights Act of 1965: Foundation of Minority Politics Today

1. The Voting Rights Act of 1965: The First Foundation of Today’s Minority Politics Political Science 61/ Chicano/Latino Studies 64 October 2, 2007

2. Welcome Second TA • Chris Stout • Office Hours: Tuesday 11-1 • SST 734 • Email: cstout@uci.edu • Joining – Kimberly Shella • Email: kshella@uci.edu • Office Hours: Wednesday 2-3; Thursday 2-3 • Office: SST 730

3. First Part of Class We begin the class by analyzing the legal foundations of contemporary minority politics • The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (Amended 1970, 1975, 1982, 1992, and 2006) • Immigration and Naturalization Amendments of 1965 (Thursday) • The emergence of and statutory recognition of pan-ethnicity among contemporary immigrants, e.g. Latinos and Asian Americans (next Tuesday)

4. “What’s import for students to realize is that this is not ancient history, people still alive were involved in this, and that we still have a long way to go.”  Stephen A. Schwerner New York Times, January 8, 2005

5. Black (and Other Minority) Voting Before the VRA • Intimidation and exclusion • Excerpt from Taylor Branch—Parting the Waters • Threats • Intimidation • Violence • “Devices” • Consequence: Pre-1965 Black turnout very low • Manipulation • Machines and minority voters • Latinos voted, but not freely

6. Voting: From State Control to Federal Oversight • Constitution: States regulate voting • “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude” • 15th Amendment to the Constitution • States regulated voting with no federal oversight until 1965 • Today, most regulation remains at state and local level (remember the 2000 election), but limited federal oversight

7. Provisions of the VRA • Prohibition of literacy tests • Federal supervision of registration/voting • Federal monitors could register voters • Pre-clearance or rule/districting changes • Judicial oversight transferred to federal court for the D.C. circuit • Prohibition on “devices” to dilute Black votes • Not part of VRA – 24th Amendment to the Constitution (1964) eliminates poll tax

8. How Did it Pass? • Increasing Black activism, particularly youth activism • Increasing violence against Blacks in Southern states • Lyndon Johnson and the “Kennedy Legacy” • Originally applied quite narrowly • Five years • Only applied to Southern states

9. Non-Black Minorities and Expanded Focus (1975-82) • VRA extended in 1975 to “language minorities” • Not to all immigrant-ethnic populations • VRA extended in 1982 to require drawing of “majority-minority” districts, when possible • Electoral politics became the primary focus of minority community leaders

10. Long Term Impact of the VRA • African American vote increased dramatically • Descriptive representation up considerably • New immigrants from covered groups immediately protected • Foundation of white partisan shift and national Republican dominance after 1968

11. Focus for the Near Future • Congress renewed VRA (over relatively little debate) in 2006 • Not clear that the Courts will continue to hold that the imposition on states’ Constitutional authority over voting in Constitutional • Change in the composition of the Supreme Court • Advocates of minority voting see need for expansion of VRA

12. In Sum • VRA federalizes regulation of voting; • It targets oversight for Black, Latino, Asian, and Native American voting; • It links the interests of these groups; and • It shifts the focus of racial and ethnic politics to electoral politics

13. Questions for Next Time • The current U.S. immigration law favors immigrants with certain characteristics. What are those characteristics? • What are the major demographic changes that have resulted from the 1965 immigration law?