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Voting Rights--and Wrongs: The Elusive Quest for Racially Fair Elections - Event Audio/Video
Civil Rights Practice Group
June 11, 2009
Abigail Thernstrom, Michael Carvin, Richard Pildes, Henry OlsenThe following audio and video were recorded on June 11, 2009.
This event was co-sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute.
Has the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the crown jewel of American civil rights legislation, become a period piece that today serves to keep most black legislators clustered on the sidelines of American politics-precisely the opposite of what its framers intended? Abigail Thernstrom, vice-chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, answers this question and more in her provocative new book, Voting Rights--and Wrongs: The Elusive Quest for Racially Fair Elections (AEI Press, June 2009)-a legal and political analysis of the forty-year history of the Voting Rights Act.
The act's original aim was simple: to give African Americans the same political opportunity enjoyed by other citizens-the chance to vote, form political coalitions, and elect the candidates of their choice. But southern resistance to black political power prompted a process of radical revisions to the act in order to ensure the election of blacks and Hispanics. Proportional racial representation-equality of results rather than mere equal opportunity-became the goal. Today, majority-minority districts do reserve seats for blacks and Hispanics and have succeeded in integrating southern politics-but at a cost. Those "max-black" districts discourage the development of centrist, "postracial" candidates like Barack Obama (who was defeated when he stood for Congress in one such district). Such race-conscious districting typically elects candidates to the left of most voters who are rarely able to run in majority-white settings. In fact, they perversely limit the potential power of black officeholders.
At this discussion of Voting Rights--and Wrongs, Thernstrom will be joined by Michael A. Carvin, a distinguished voting rights attorney, and New York University School of Law professor Richard H. Pildes, one of the nation's leading voting rights scholars.
[
Full Audio]
[
Full Video - hosted by AEI]
Audio Running Time: 02:00:22
Panelists:
- Hon. Abigail Thernstrom, Vice-Chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and Author of Voting Rights--and Wrongs: The Elusive Quest for Racially Fair Elections
- Mr. Michael A. Carvin, Partner, Jones Day
- Prof. Richard H. Pildes, Sudler Family Professor of Constitutional Law, New York University School of Law
- Moderator: Henry Olsen, Director of the National Research Initiative, American Enterprise Institute
American Enterprise Institute
Washington, DC
