Youth Voting Rights: Civil Rights, the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, and the Fight for American Democracy on College Campuses

by Jonathan Becker (Editor), Yael Bromberg (Editor)

Overview

The goal of this book is to use the history of the 26th Amendment and the ongoing fight to promote and defend youth voter participation as a prism through which to teach the history of the struggle for the fundamental right to vote in the United States. The book centers on case studies of four US institutions—Tuskegee University, Prairie View A&M University, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, and Bard College, which offer unique insights into the role of college communities in the fight for suffrage, and their contributions to the evolution of the right to vote in the United States.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783111575162
Publisher:	De Gruyter
Publication date:	10/20/2025
Series:	Democracy in Times of Upheaval , #5
Pages:	250
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.06(h) x (d)

About the Author

Jonathan Becker is Professor of Political Studies and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Bard College, where he is also Director of the Center for Civic Engagement. He teaches courses on voting and elections, civic engagement, local politics, and media and politics, and has published op-eds, policy papers, and scholarly articles on student voting rights and the role of universities as civic actors. He is editor of the forthcoming book Civic Engagement and Social Action: Locally, Nationally, and Globally (Central European UniversityPress). Dr. Becker earned his B.A. from McGill Universityand his DPhil from Oxford University, St. Antony’s College.

Yael Bromberg is a leading legal scholar of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, and teaches democracy law at American UniversityWashington College of Law. A constitutional rights litigator with over twenty years of experience in campaigns, her legal practice includes election law, free speech, civil rights and employment law. Her legal scholarship on the Twenty-Sixth Amendment has been dubbed a “groundbreaking study,” and includes the introduction of the first legal volume dedicated to the right, for which she served as a faculty advisor. Bromberg earned her B.A.s from Douglass College, her J.D. from Rutgers School of Law, and an LLM with distinction from Georgetown UniversityLaw Center.

Jonathan Becker is Professor of Political Studies and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Bard College, where he is also Director of the Center for Civic Engagement. He teaches courses on voting and elections, civic engagement, local politics, and media and politics, and has published op-eds, policy papers, and scholarly articles on student voting rights and the role of universities as civic actors. He is editor of the forthcoming book Civic Engagement and Social Action: Locally, Nationally, and Globally (Central European UniversityPress). Dr. Becker earned his B.A. from McGill Universityand his DPhil from Oxford University, St. Antony’s College.

Yael Bromberg is a leading legal scholar of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, and teaches democracy law at American UniversityWashington College of Law. A constitutional rights litigator with over twenty years of experience in campaigns, her legal practice includes election law, free speech, civil rights and employment law. Her legal scholarship on the Twenty-Sixth Amendment has been dubbed a “groundbreaking study,” and includes the introduction of the first legal volume dedicated to the right, for which she served as a faculty advisor. Bromberg earned her B.A.s from Douglass College, her J.D. from Rutgers School of Law, and an LLM with distinction from Georgetown UniversityLaw Center.