Book Review: Living in infamy: Felony disfranchisement and the history of American citizenship

• Author: Kristen M. Budd
• Published date: 01 September 2014
• DOI: 10.1177/0734016814534683
• Date: 01 September 2014
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

Holloway, P. (2014).

Living in infamy: Felony disfranchisement and the history of American citizenship. New York, NY: Oxford University

Press. 236 pp. $34.95 (Hardcover), ISBN 978-0-19-997608-9.

Reviewed by: Kristen M. Budd, Miami University, Oxford, OH, USA

DOI: 10.1177/0734016814534683

Today, felony disfranchisement affects millions of American citizens, but how did felony

disfranchisement become so ingrained in American sociolegal culture? What are the sociolegal

roots of this ‘‘modern day poll tax’’? In Living in Infamy: Felony Disfranchisement and

the History of American Citizenship, Pippa Holloway answers these questions by analyzing the

historical intersections of politics, race, class, social status, and citizenship rights in the post-

Civil War South. The book focuses on why felony disfranchisement had such strong historical

roots in the post-Civil War South, why it disproportionally affected African Americans, how

the laws were developed and enforced, and what obstacles individuals faced when trying to

restore their citizenship status. Driving this analysis is the important role of infamy and how

infamy was used as a tool to disfranchise African Americans and, as time passed, used to dis-

franchise lower class Whites.

The Preface begins with a historical ‘‘real life’’ example of discrimination at the voting booth that

connects race and criminal status; a foreshadowing of how felony disfranchisement was designed

to disproportionately target African Americans. Holloway also foreshadows the role of the courts

in shaping these laws and how contemporary courts have set precedent on felony disfranchisement

using these historical events. The Preface sets the tone as Holloway spends time here linking felony

disfranchisement’s past with its present and its present with its past. I would recommend reading

it before the Introduction.

The Introduction starts with a discussion and critique of prior research on felony disfranchisement

in the South. Holloway then lays out the two central arguments of the book: (1) infamy was a tool

used to deny citizenship, to exclude African Americans, and to differentiate between infamous

and noninfamous convictions based on crime type; and (2) infamy was extended to disfranchise

individuals regardless of race (pp. 2–3). The remainder of the Introduction familiarizes the reader

with infamy, its history, and why various types of crimes were deemed infamous. Holloway

aptly stresses that infamy played a role in not only constructing the boundaries of the political

community but also the social construction of citizenship (p. 15).

In Chapter 1, Holloway illustrates through the use of historical evidence that infamy and dis-

franchisement were used earlier in history than prior research suggests. This chapter also focuses

on the trajectories and ideologies of infamy and disfranchisement in the North and in the South.

This distinction is of pivotal importance for the reader in order to have a better understanding of

why infamy and disfranchisement gained momentum in the South, but not the North. Holloway

provides ample evidence supporting these two distinct trajectories that are linked to ideas about

prisons, punishment, and the infamous status.

Chapter 2 describes the 1867 and 1868 elections and constitutional conventions, including the

federal activity of drafting and passing the 13th through 15th amendments. Holloway uses case

studies, such as the North Carolina whipping campaign, to illustrate how states were attempting

to preemptively exclude African Americans from voting before the passage of the 1 4th amend-

ment (whipping was an infamous punishment that resultedinaninfamoussocialstatus).This

chapter presents a nice balance of law and politics at the state and federal level and how these laws

and constitutional amendments influenced disfranchisement and the application of the infamous

status, including the important role of language in legal doctrine.

346 Criminal Justice Review 39(3)