Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America

I remember the day the Supreme Court effectively gutted the Voting Rights Act and as this election was in full swing, began paying increasing attention to the increasingly stringent laws passing in Republican controlled states in the name of protecting the integrity of elections (eliminating voter fraud) which was just a means of suppressing votes and disenfranchising minorities, the elderly, students and those more economically disadvantaged. I came across an article talking about Ari Berman's book "Give us the Ballot" and began reading it a week before the election and finished it a few days later."Give Us the Ballot" is a monumentally critical book for all Americans, not only in light of the 2016 election, but really to understand that the bedrock of democracy, the right to vote, has been under assault. This certainly isn't a new story since it goes back to our founding when essentially only white landowning men could vote. The march of history has certainly led to progress where ostensibly all adults are entitled to vote in theory, yet in practice that is hardly the case. Berman focuses this book on the time period from the modern civil rights movement and one of the most important pieces of legislation, the 1965 Voting Rights Act which was instrumental in eliminating post-Reconstruction barriers like poll taxes and literacy tests that prevented black Americans from exercising the franchise. Berman provides brilliant detail around the progress made because of the VRA, the people and forces that worked to undermine it (John Roberts within the Reagan administration and later as Chief Justice of SCOTUS) and the chicanery undertaken by politicians to promote non-existent voter fraud as a means to "justify" the need for strict voting laws. With the evisceration of section 5 of the VRA, large numbers of Americans across many states now face far more obstacles to vote than ever before. Yes, the election is rigged but not for the reason you PEOTUS wants you to believe. "Give us the Ballot" will make you understand that DJT wouldn't be President if voter suppression wasn't rampant.This is truly an enlightening and critical book to read about the politicization of what is the most fundamental American right. Berman shines a illuminating and harsh light on voter disenfranchisement.

Ari Berman's recent book, "Give Us the Ballot", is a tour de force when it comes to describing how the Voting Rights Act of 1965 became law and the desperate and vicious attacks since then on that law. It's no surprise that southern states, long in their own history of violence and voter suppression, figure heavily here. It's a shameful record.While events leading up to the passage of the Voting Rights Act are well documented and narrated by the author, the real interest for me as a reader is what has happened since. The book really begins to crackle when Berman describes the 2000 presidential election and the mischief that occurred in Florida. Leave it to misfits like Katherine Harris to disregard the votes of so many Floridians. Yet unbelievably, it is Chief Justice John Roberts who leads the charge as protagonist to new voting restrictions. Through purges in voter rolls and new restrictions on voter ID and early voting, reading this book makes one think that all or most of the progress that has been made since 1965 has been lost. When Moral Monday protests occurred in North Carolina in 2014 a prescient sign reading "Welcome to North Carolina/turn your watch back 50 years" provided an accurate feeling of how so few in southern state legislatures can cause so much damage in such a short space of time."Give Us the Ballot" is an exceptionally well-crafted and documented book. The personal stories of many voters who were not allowed to register and/or vote are presented here and their reflections are all too sad... and yet for them, necessary to be related to readers. I highly recommend "Give Us the Ballot" because it tells the story of how a great country of ours can be reduced by those people in power who can't see the forest for the trees."

This book tells a disturbing story from a point of view that will enrage conservatives. The opening chapters present a rising arc of hope, the concluding chapters describe how it crashes to the ground. Voting is a wonderful right, but remains fundamentally an issue of power, so it cannot be viewed or treated neutrally. Those with power want to keep it, and this book documents the blatant and sneaky ways white Americans (and especially Republicans) go about hanging on to power.The book nicely introduces many heroes of the civil rights movement, but I did not expect to see Chief Justice John Roberts planted so firmly on the side of the villains. George Wallace, yes. Strom Thurmond, sure. But Roberts? Sadly, the evidence is here to indict Roberts for his ignorance of racial matters in America. He has been a tool of conservative leaders since his days as a Supreme Court clerk. This fits into a larger story of how the Supreme Court was stacked with conservative justices, which this book also exposes.The book isn't just an assortment of biographies. Though it uses profiles of people nicely to maintain a narrative flow, it is a book about ideas and political machinations. It provides clear explanations of arguments and ideas, while identifying important changes as debates evolve. The author does this exceptionally well.Because of the consistent point of view in the book, I won't give it five stars. A more moderate point of view would require editing in countless places. But, that book wouldn't be nearly as engrossing as this one. This is a page-turner. More importantly, it does not want to leave its reader comfortable, but push us all to stand for a fair and accessible ballot. It is a very good book.

Good

This book is one of the most important books recently published on voter suppression in the United States. Anyone interested in why so many Americans do not vote or cannot vote should read it. A fine piece of work.