One Person, No Vote (Young Adult edition): How Not All Voters Are Treated Equally

by Carol Anderson, Tonya Bolden

Overview

A timely and essential history of Black voter suppression, adapted from the National Book Award longlisted adult book

This young adult adaptation brings to light the shocking truth about how not every voter is treated equally. After the election of Barack Obama, a rollback of voting rights occurred, punctuated by a 2013 Supreme Court decision that undid the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Known as the Shelby ruling, this decision allowed districts with a history of racial discrimination to change voting requirements without approval from the Department of Justice. This book follows the stunning aftermath of that ruling and explains how voter suppression works, from photo ID requirements to gerrymandering to poll closures. It also explores the resistance: the organizing, activism, and court battles to restore the basic right to vote to all Americans.

Complete with a discussion guide, photographs, and information about getting involved with elections in teens’ own community, this is an essential explanation of the history of voting rights—and a call to action for a better future. As the nation gears up for the 2020 presidential election season, now is the time for teens to understand the past and work for change.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781547601073
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	09/17/2019
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	234,899
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Carol Anderson is the Charles Howard Candler Professor and Chair of African American Studies at Emory University. She is the author of many books and articles, including Bourgeois Radicals: The NAACP and the Struggle for Colonial Liberation, 1941-1960 and Eyes Off the Prize: The United Nations and the African American Struggle for Human Rights: 1944-1955. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
www.professorcarolanderson.org

Tonya Bolden is a critically acclaimed award-winning author/co-author/editor of more than two dozen books for young people. They include Crossing Ebeneezer Creek, which received five starred reviews; Finding Family which received two starred reviews and was a Kirkus Reviews and Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year; Maritcha: A Nineteenth-Century American Girl, a Coretta Scott King honor book and James Madison Book Award winner; MLK: Journey of a King, winner of a National Council of Teachers of English Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children; Emancipation Proclamation: Lincoln and the Dawn of Liberty, an ALSC Notable Children's Book, CBC/NCSS Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People, and winner of the NCSS Carter G. Woodson Middle Level Book Award. Tonya also received the Children's Book Guild of Washington, DC's Nonfiction Award. A Princeton University magna cum laude baccalaureate with a master's degree from Columbia University, Tonya lives in New York City.
www.tonyaboldenbooks.com

Table of Contents

Prologue xi

Part 1 A History of Disenfranchisement 1

1 Bubbles in a Bar of Soap 3

2 Poll Tax Blues 11

3 Only Democrats Need Apply 17

4 And Don't Forget the Matches 23

5 Here Comes the VRA 29

6 The War on the VRA 39

7 A "judicial coup d'état" 51

Part 2 Voter ID 63

8 "A Citizen No More" 65

9 Florida Fiasco, Missouri Madness, Hoosier State Horrors, and Georgia Not So Peachy Keen 69

10 Floodgates Opened Wide 87

Part 3 Voter Roll Purge 99

11 And Kemp Saw Dead People 101

12 Exact Match and Crosscheck 113

13 A Sham and a Scam 125

14 "A National Champion" 133

Part 4 Rigging the Rules 139

15 Elbridge Gerry's Salamander 141

16 Of the Texas Glock, the Georgia Flat-Cat Road Kill, and Other Aberrations 153

17 Gill v. Whitford 159

18 More Dirty Tricks 169

Part 5 The Resistance 177

19 Sweet Home Alabama? 179

20 Of Aborigines and Illiterates 183

21 "Selma, Lord, Selma" 199

Conclusion 211

22 At the Crossroads 213

Discussion Guide 221

Get Involved in Your Community 223

Notes 225

Photograph Credits 259

Index 261

Editorial Reviews

. . . [D]ocuments centuries of techniques designed to limit progress in the black community. Although some of the material may be upsetting, this is a book that should absolutely be included in the curriculum.” —School Library Connection, starred review

“[A]n accessible narrative form, showing young people through pivotal historical events the ways in which white rage has been able to effectively undermine black-led social movements for equality and justice.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"This highly recommended book arrives just in time to educate newly eligible voters for the 2020 election." - School Library Journal

From the Publisher

10/01/2019

Gr 6 Up—This very readable teen adaptation of Anderson's New York Times best seller covers the systematic, racially motivated legal, physical, and psychological tactics used since the end of Reconstruction to suppress black, poor, and/or otherwise marginalized voters. In a chatty voice, Anderson explains poll taxes, literacy tests, intimidation, gerrymandering, and voter ID laws. The text is conversational but occasionally uses vocabulary and cultural references most likely to be unfamiliar to teens. Anderson also discusses the recent technological methods used to disenfranchise voters—gerrymandering databases, Russian interference via social media, and blanket voter roll purges. Her case is strongly supported by numerous examples drawn from both Northern but mostly Southern states. Because of the seriousness of the subject, the first three-fourths of the book is disheartening and discouraging. Racially motivated suppression has a long, dark history in the United States. However, the final quarter details the Alabamian resistance to voter suppression and the defeat of Roy Moore in his 2017 bid for the U.S. Senate seat. The author concludes by emphasizing how this trend of purposeful voter education and activism must continue in order to preserve democracy in the United States. VERDICT This highly recommended book arrives just in time to educate newly eligible voters for the 2020 election.—Lisa Crandall, formerly at the Capital Area District Library, Holt, MI

School Library Journal

★ 2019-07-24
This YA adaptation of Anderson's breakthrough 2018 book of the same name for adults demonstrates her scholarship on racial discrimination and voter disenfranchisement, presenting an urgent case for political intervention.

"The millions of votes and voters that disappeared in 2016 were a long time in the making," begins this deep historical investigation. The excitement of the Reconstruction era, when newly enfranchised black men were able to leverage such transformative policies as the shaping of the public school system, led to white people inventing de facto and de jure mechanisms to prevent black America from having any real political power. Civil rights struggles achieved the 1965 Voting Rights Act in a period of U.S. global ideological competition, but simmering anger and backlash from whites strove to undo voter protections for black citizens. Coverage of the controversial 2000 presidential election results shows how the GOP-led reinvention of voter disenfranchisement strategies undermined federal government-backed voter protections in order to focus on eliminating voter fraud. Persuasively emphasized throughout the book is the disproportionate impact of these policies on black citizens, as Anderson argues with clarity that predatory racial animus lies at the center of the American democratic project, culminating with the winner of the 2016 presidential election. Bolden's (Inventing Victoria, 2019, etc.) adaptation will fire up a new generation of civic activists through its gripping presentation.

A significant people's history and call to action for youth. (discussion guide, resources, notes, photo credits, index) (Nonfiction. 13-18)

Kirkus Reviews

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