Bending Toward Justice: The Voting Rights Act and the Transformation of American Democracy

by Gary May

When the Fifteenth Amendment of 1870 granted African Americans the right to vote, it seemed as if a new era of political equality was at hand. Before long, however, white segregationists across the South counterattacked, driving their black countrymen from the polls through a combination of sheer terror and insidious devices such as complex literacy tests and expensive poll taxes. Most African Americans would remain voiceless for nearly a century more, citizens in name only until the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act secured their access to the ballot.

In Bending Toward Justice , celebrated historian Gary May describes how black voters overcame centuries of bigotry to secure and preserve one of their most important rights as American citizens. The struggle that culminated in the passage of the Voting Rights Act was long and torturous, and only succeeded because of the courageous work of local freedom fighters and national civil rights leaders -- as well as, ironically, the opposition of Southern segregationists and law enforcement officials, who won public sympathy for the voting rights movement by brutally attacking peaceful demonstrators. But while the Voting Rights Act represented an unqualified victory over such forces of hate, May explains that its achievements remain in jeopardy. Many argue that the 2008 election of President Barack Obama rendered the act obsolete, yet recent years have seen renewed efforts to curb voting rights and deny minorities the act's hard-won protections. Legal challenges to key sections of the act may soon lead the Supreme Court to declare those protections unconstitutional.

A vivid, fast-paced history of this landmark piece of civil rights legislation, Bending Toward Justice offers a dramatic, timely account of the struggle that finally won African Americans the ballot -- although, as May shows, the fight for voting rights is by no means over.

Genres: History, Politics, Nonfiction, Law, African American, American History, Sociology

336 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Gary May is Professor of History at the University of Delaware. He is the author of The Informant: The FBI, the Ku Klux Klan and the Murder of Viola Liuzzo.

Reviews

[Happyreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don’t think this political page turner is only about African Americans protesting at great risk to gain their lawful right to vote. Yes, this is a fascinating and well-researched historical account of the fight to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Yes, it’s told at the grassroots level featuring not just the big names like MLK but the countless brave individuals who literally risked their lives to secure their right to vote. But the post-1965 tale is also told in great detail. As brutal as the pre-1965 fight for voting rights was, the post-1965 phase is also disturbing. After all the sacrifices, voting rights are still not secure. This 2013 book offers a strong counterargument to the Supreme Court’s assumption that the Voting Rights Act is no longer relevant in an Obama America. African Americans are not alone in their disenfranchisement. Poll taxes and literacy tests have transformed into voter ID laws, prohibitions on third party registration, limited hours of registration and voting, and gerrymandering. Certain political groups work very hard under the guise of preventing non-existent voter fraud to limit access to the ballot box. A democracy where election victories are only won by limiting voter participation is not a true democracy.

[Martha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this almost immediately after finishing Bill of the Century, Clay Risen's meticulous story of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and, despite their ostensibly similar subject matter, they're two wildly different books. Whereas Risen's is a detail examination of each political step in the long process to create and pass the Civil Rights Act, Bending Toward Justice is a narrative of the nation's gradual move toward the Voting Rights Act. Nearly three quarters of the book is spent in the deep south with protesters and marchers and it's a truly thrilling read, building to a fitting climax in Washington, DC. The last two chapters -- consisting of the renewals of the Act and the recent attempts by states at voter suppression -- are a fitting coda, but cannot possibly rise to the standard set by the rest of book.

[Phil · Rating 5 out of 5]

On September 15, 1963, the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama was bombed. The blast killed four young girls and injured twenty-two others. Due to reluctant witnesses, a lack of physical evidence, and pervasive racial prejudice the case was closed without any indictments.

Bending Toward Justice is a dramatic and compulsively readable account of a key moment in our long national struggle for equality, related by Sen. Doug Jones, who played a major role in these events. A distinguished work of legal and personal history, the book is destined to take its place as a canonical civil rights history. How this man can/may not be re-elected is unfathomable. The past is still too with us.

[Gordon Kwok · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good book on one of the most transformative laws of the 20th century if not all of American history. It provides a good background of what happened BEFORE the law was passed, HOW it got passed and the EFFECTS after the law was passed along with commentary on the battles that ensued afterwards either to repeal the law or weaken it.

My only gripe with the book was the author's characterization of LBJ's role in the introduction of the VRA. In the author's portrayal of the passage and Bloody Sunday in Selma, he makes it appear that MLK had to use Selma and its brutality in order to get President Johnson to act. However, even back in 1964 (the book mentions this), LBJ was already working with his attorney general on the strongest bill that was constitutional and could ensure passage. In fact, LBJ actually plotted with MLK to choose Selma as the spot where ardent racists were most brutal and bait them into attacking the protesters and marchers which they did. The attacks in turn outraged the conscience of a nation which gave LBJ the political cover he wanted to introduce the Voting Rights Act to Congress.

Notwithstanding that, I think this was a great book and recommend it to anyone with an interest in history or the civil rights movement or even contemporary politics.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a pretty succinct version of the history of the Voting Rights Act. Tomes have been written.
But this packs quite a punch. Even though I lived through this era, It is still to this day shocking to re-read the events that led to the passage.

This book is short enough to use in a classroom. Every once in a while I read a book and think to myself that teachers in high schools should make this required reading. Students should know what transpired to get to the place where we are at today. It might be a real jolt.
In 2013 the Supreme Court invalidated a section of the act dealing with pre clearance for states to change their voting laws. And, of course, all of the Southern states dusted off the old ugly segregation playbook to show their true colors. There was a reason for pre-clearance. Apparently there still is.

Even adults would be wise to revisit this era.

[Craig Werner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent treatment of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. May does a good job drawing the lines between the law and the Selma Movement, being careful to provide a clear sense of what was happening before the Alabama city moved to center stage in 1965. The writing is always clear, frequently moving. Balancing the perspectives of SNCC activists Jim Foreman and John Lewis, Martin Luther King and his lieutenants in SCLC, and the liberal politicians headed by Lyndon Johnson isn't easy, but May pulls it off.

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bending Toward Justice offers a compelling and deeply researched account of the long, painful struggle for African American voting rights in the United States. Beginning with the promise of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870 and moving through the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Gary May exposes how political equality was systematically undermined by white segregationists through violence, intimidation, and discriminatory practices such as literacy tests and poll taxes.

[Steve McFarland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Restore the Voting Rights Act! And until we do shame on every politician that dares to pander for the vote of black and brown people and does not seek to protect the foundational right that is the right to the ballot box.


Ballot or the Bullet

[Perry · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good reminder of how far we've come and how far we have to go in terms of voting rights. May balances action in 1960s Alabama with political maneuvering well. One can only wonder how a chapter on new voting laws would look like.

[Jerry Dunham III · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gary May goes into outstanding detail about the events that led to Bloody Sunday and the events that fallowed in the struggle for voting rights in America.

[MisterLiberry Head · Rating 4 out of 5]

A professor of history at the Univ. of Delaware recounts how federal law agonizingly came about that enabled African Americans to overcome the policy obstacles and criminal intimidation that had effectively stripped them of their right to vote in many parts of the South. The book puts a timely focus on the grassroots efforts of volunteers going back as far as the 1930s--“unsung heroes,” many of them all but forgotten today.

The importance and value of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 seems to be nearly forgotten, as well. The U.S. Supreme Court recently invalidated Section 5 and other key provisions, which is encouraging states like the one where I live to immediately re-introduce and pass legislation intended to block Latinos (and many of the poor or geographically isolated) from the polls, or to negate the impact of minority votes via redistricting.

This author was a fascinating guest July 12 on PBS’s “Moyers & Company.” Congressman John Lewis, a veteran of marches in the Deep South at the side of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., recently followed as a guest. Historians have an invaluable role to play in interpreting and preserving the lessons of the past, but the recent rollback of voting rights is especially heartbreaking when you know more about the actual people who experienced the civil rights struggle. May’s important book doesn’t gloss over conflicts between like-minded individuals--for example, Dr. King and LBJ had a problematical relationship--yet he uses nuance and detail to demonstrate how allies can work together to overcome even the most implacable foes and long-standing barriers. So much of the legislative maneuvering and “politicking” by masters like Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen stand as a lost art, and would make useful instruction for today’s ineffectual officeholders and full-time partisan bloviators. BENDING TOWARD JUSTICE is a reminder that once, not just during World War Two, heroes walked the earth.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of a survey than an analysis and with a tendency to spend too long focusing on non-VRA events of the Civil Rights Movement (familiar to anyone with even a basic knowledge of that era), this book does not do credit to Dr. May’s knowledge. I heard him interviewed on Moyers and Company, and Dr. May knows his stuff.

The Supreme Court decision earlier this year – and the almost immediate alterations to voting laws in some states – highlights why the Voting Rights Act continues to matter. From that standpoint, Dr. May picked a good time to publish a book on the VRA. Bending Towards Justice has some strong sections, but overall, I feel like the book fell short of fully elaborating on the VRA’s importance and its place in American history.

For those who have not read or studied the VRA and Civil Rights Movement in depth and who want to know more about why the recent Supreme Court decision is bad for America as a whole, Bending Toward Justice is worth a read. Quasi-recommended.

[Thomas Stevenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

You might wonder, as I did, about the recent uproar over the Supreme Court's ruling on the voting rights act. While the media tended towards a short view of this issue, the matter of what rules to enforce and how has a long history. May makes this clear. He also makes apparent why the changes will have long term consequences. Democracy may be based on popular participation, including voting, but this is not in the interest of those in or seeking power. They prefer something else.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating history of the Voting Rights Act and all those men and women who fought so hard to obtain the right to vote. With the recent ruling in the Supreme Court it has become even more important to raise awareness of the many ways that various individuals have made all kinds of efforts to disenfranchise so many people from one of the most basic rights in our government. Namely, the right to vote.

[Be Mock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent stories. If you want to know what happened between King's Dream speech and Selma, all the unsung heroes, the demonstrations that failed to launch, the backstory to the successful demos, the congressional debates, wheeling and dealing to get the Voting Rights Act passed, this is mandatory reading. None of that shit was pretty. This is unsanitized civil rights history. Necessary tension.

[Elizabeth Higginbotham · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew much about the civil rights movement, so the book helped fill in my knowledge about the battles in Congress to get the first Voting Rights Act in 1965. It also covered other extensions of the act and a nice discussion of the limitation of the law that is fertile ground for voter suppression of the 21st century. A good read if you are not familiar with these issues.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

An outstanding look at the long arduous history of the creation of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 from both the front lines of the civil rights movement and the behind the scenes political battles and wheelings and dealings of the Congress and President Johnson. also a look at how the right to vote is under assault yet again.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating, behind-the-scenes account of how the Voting Rights Act came into being, and the politics behind that. I didn't realize until I read this book of just how horrible the violence against black people who simply wanted to register and vote was, a mere 50 or so so years ago. It also goes over the efforts since 1965 to weaken or dismantle the VRA.

[Blake Maddux]

The second half of this piece is my review of Bending Toward Justice as it appears on DigBoston.com:

http://digboston.com/boston-arts-thea...

[Pamela · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent history of the Voting Rights Act and the ordinary people who toiled to make it possible. A well written, informative read that couldn't be more timely. This should be required reading that would serve to motivate us to protect everyone's right to vote. I highly recommend it!

[Beverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great history that is continuing. It's so disheartening that many in our country still target and are achieving the disenfranchisement of specific voters to achieve political ends. Do I live in a democracy?

[Marlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Considering the recent news accounts of the anniversary of Bloody Sunday, this book provides significant background of that event as well as explanations of other critical things that led to the passage of the Voters Rights Act. Very educational, very emotional, and very well-written.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommended.

[Emma S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Should be mandatory reading everywhere, especially with all of the new cases surrounding the Voting Rights Act.

[Frank Ogden · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent book regarding the current issue of voting rights in the USA.

[Mills College Library]

342.73072 M4664 2013