Posted by Eugene Volokh:
Abigail Thernstrom, Guest-Blogging:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_08_16-2009_08_22.shtml#1249674817
I'm delighted to report that Abigail Thernstrom will be guest-blogging
this week about her new book, [1]Voting Rights -- and Wrongs: The
Elusive Quest for Racially Fair Elections. Dr. Thernstrom is the
vice-chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and an adjunct
scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. She and her husband,
Stephan Thernstrom, were the recipients of the 2007 Bradley Foundation
prize for �Outstanding Intellectual Achievement.� From 1993 to 2009,
she was a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, and for eleven
years served on the Massachusetts Board of Education. She is also a
member of the board of advisors of the U.S. Election Assistance
Commission.
Dr. Thernstrom's 1987 book on the Voting Rights Act won four awards,
including the American Bar Association�s Certificate of Merit. With
her husband, she also co-authored [2]America in Black and White: One
Nation, Indivisible (1997) and [3]No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap
in Learning (2003). Here's a brief blurb about her new book:
The passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act marked the death knell of
the Jim Crow South; American apartheid could not survive black
ballots. But ensuring black electoral equality was more difficult
than originally envisioned. For good and ill, the statute became
the means by which blacks and Hispanics acquired the right to safe
legislative seats. Race-conscious districting to protect minority
candidates from white competition both integrated and segregated
American politics. By now, however, those safe minority
constituencies, in marginalizing black representatives, have become
a brake on further racial progress, she argues.
References
1.
http://www.amazon.com/Voting-Rights-Wrongs-Racially-Elections/dp/0844742724/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1249674580&sr=8-1
2.
http://www.amazon.com/America-Black-White-Nation-Indivisible/dp/0684844974/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1249674676&sr=8-1
3.
http://www.amazon.com/No-Excuses-Closing-Racial-Learning/dp/074326522X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1249674698&sr=8-1
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