The Voting Rights Act: Impact and Lessons Learned

• Author: Amber E. Williams
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12795
• Published date: 01 July 2017
• Date: 01 July 2017

626 Public Administration Review • July | August 2017

Amber E. Williams is a doctoral

student and part-time lecturer at Rutgers

University-Newark in the School of Public

Affairs and Administration (SPAA). Her

interests include constitutional law,

representative bureaucracy, and human

resources. She participated in the Policy

Solutions Challenge USA in 2014 and

2015. She served as a Women ’ s Policy

Initiative Fellow of New Jersey in 2013

and participated in the Policy Solutions

Challenge USA in 2014 and 2015.

E-mail: amber.williams@rutgers.edu

Charles S. Bullock, III , Ronald Keith Gaddie , Justine

J. West , The Rise and Fall of the Voting Rights

Act ( Norman, OK : The University of Oklahoma

Press , 2016 ) 256 pp. $29.95 (hardcover), ISBN:

9780806152004.

Dread Scott v. Sanford ( 1857 ) is one of the most

notable Supreme Court cases in U.S. history.

The Supreme Court held that, although black

men and women may be free, they are not citizens

of the United States. The ruling determined that

blacks have no right to citizenship and precluded

that they have no right to vote. It would not be until

1866, when the Civil Rights Act was passed, that

all individuals born in the United States would be

declared citizens. The Civil Rights Act gave black

Americans citizenship status but not the right to vote.

It would take another four years for all black male

citizens to finally obtain the legal right to vote.

This was a result of the adoption of the Fifteenth

Amendment in 1870. It took another 50 years for

all citizens to achieve this right with the passing of

the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. Even after the

adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment, some states

and jurisdictions sought to limit black citizens by

creating laws and practices to block their access to the

polls. Such practices included imposing a poll tax,

adopting a grandfather clause, or requiring a literacy

test. These practices were designed to deprive black

citizens of one of their basic rights. It would not be

until the Voting Rights Act (VRA) was adopted in

1965 that all eligible citizens would be able to vote

without restriction. The VRA was one of the most

successful means to providing equality in the voting

process.

The Rise and Fall of the Voting Rights Act ( 2016 ),

a follow-up to The Triumph of Voting Rights in

the South ( 2009 ), is a compelling, engaging, and

Danny L. Balfour , Editor

Amber E. Williams

Rutgers University-Newark

The Voting Rights Act: Impact and Lessons Learned

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 77, Iss. 4, pp. 626–627. © 2017 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.12795.