Retracing the Struggle, Part I: From Civil Rights to Voting Rights—The History
- I: From Civil Rights to Voting Rights—The History
- II: The Social and Political Impact of the Voting Rights Act
- III: Voting Rights and Electoral Politics Today
This symposium, presented by the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, hosted by Boston College, and titled “Retracing the Struggle: The Legacy of the Voting Rights Act of 1965,” observes the anniversary of one of the key pieces of legislature that has shaped democracy in the United States, a law eliminating discriminatory election practices and thereby enforcing the rights granted to all American citizens under the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Part one of three focuses on the road to the Voting Rights Act, marked by the civil rights movement's nonviolent protest of voting restrictions for black citizens. The panelists are Pulitzer-winning historian Taylor Branch, who has just completed At Canaan's Edge (Simon & Schuster, 2006), the third volume of his epic biography of Martin Luther King, Jr.; Alexander Keyssar, a professor of history and social policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and author of The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States (Basic Books, 2000); and Harris Wofford, a civil rights activist and former senator from Pennsylvania. Atlantic Monthly national correspondent James Fallows moderates.
The panel is introduced by Cullen Murphy, managing editor of the Atlantic Monthly and a member of the board of the Massachusetts Foundation of the Humanities. Welcoming remarks are offered by John Dacey, president of the Massachusetts Foundation of the Humanities, and University President William P. Leahy, SJ.
Presenter(s): Taylor Branch, James Fallows, Alexander Keyssar, Harris Wofford
Date: October 29, 2005
Location: Robsham Theater, Boston College
Sponsor(s): Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities; hosted by Boston College
URL: http://frontrow.bc.edu/program/retracing1/
The information on this page is accurate as of October 2005