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THE LAST STAND?

Shelby County v. Holder, White Political Power, and America’s Racial Policy Alliances

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2016

Desmond S. King  and
Rogers M. Smith
Desmond S. King*
Affiliation:
Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford
Rogers M. Smith
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania
*
* Corresponding author: Desmond King, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of American Government, University of Oxford Nuffield College, New Road, Oxford OX1 1NF, UK. E-mail: Desmond.king@nuffield.ox.ac.uk
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Abstract

In 2013, the United States Supreme Court decided Shelby County v. Holder, which invalidated Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The ruling is part of longstanding efforts to maintain American institutions that have provided wide-ranging benefits to White citizens, including disproportionate political power. Over time, such efforts are likely to fail to prevent significant increases in political gains for African Americans, Latinos, and other minority citizens. But they threaten to foster severe conflicts in American politics for years to come.

Keywords

Voting Rights ActRacial Policy AlliancesShelby County v. HolderVote SuppressionColor Blind PoliciesRace Conscious Policies

Information

Type
State of the Discipline
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , Spring 2016 , pp. 25 - 44
Copyright
Copyright © Hutchins Center for African and African American Research 2016 

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