The Legal Defense Fund’s (LDF) Thurgood Marshall Institute (TMI) released a special edition law journal in collaboration with the Vanderbilt Social Justice Reporter (VSJR), Voting Rights in the South, on the importance of protecting and expanding voting rights across the South and beyond. As an extension of a Voting Rights Roundtable hosted by TMI and VSJR in April 2024, the journal provides context and insight on how communities can advance racial justice and voting rights following the 2024 presidential election.
The journal consists of four articles on artificial intelligence, ballot access for incarcerated individuals, race and fair redistricting, and the role of the courts in voting rights. In “New Digital Dangers to Democracy,” Paul M. Barrett and Cecely Richard-Carvajal discuss the imminent danger generative AI poses to Black voters. R. Jared Evans and Victoria Wenger explore race and fair redistricting maps in a multiracial democracy using Louisiana as a case study, and Kate Uyeda provides an example of successful efforts to ensure access to the ballot in Nashville, Tennessee. Finally, Justice Anita Earls of the North Carolina Supreme Court addresses how the courts – particularly state courts – have been weaponized against voting rights protections in the South.
“While the Reconstruction Amendments were incremental steps towards recognizing the full citizenship of Black people in America, systemic racism and voter suppression continue to persist—undermining Black people’s fundamental right to fully engage in and exercise their democratic power,” said Karla McKanders, Director of the Thurgood Marshall Institute. “The enduring gap between the promise of equality and the lived experiences of Black communities underscores the necessity for collaboration between invested stakeholders, like TMI and VSJR, to engage in community-centered dialogue and education to protect and expand voting rights in the South and across the nation. This collaboration represents a pivotal moment in the ongoing effort to ensure that the promise of an equitable and thriving multiracial, multi-ethnic democracy is fully realized.”
The Roundtable and journal are a natural extension of TMI’s efforts to advance LDF’s mission of building Black political power. TMI’s recent research products support this effort, including but not limited to the research briefs When the State Takes Over and Democracy Detained: Fulfilling the Promise of the Right to Vote from Jail. Against the backdrop of political misinformation, mass voter challenges supercharged artificial intelligence (AI), rising distrust in government efficacy, TMI co-hosted the Roundtable and is releasing the journal to educate and collaborate with voting rights advocates, local communities, and law students about the current state of voting rights in the South.
LDF and TMI thank the many individuals who made the Roundtable and this journal possible, including Vanderbilt Law Dean Christ Guthrie, LDF President and Director-Counsel Janai Nelson, and Ashley Fox (Vanderbilt Law School ’24), former Editor-in-Chief of VSJR and LDF Marshall-Motley Scholar
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Legal Defense Fund (LDF) – Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the nation’s first civil rights law organization. LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute is a multi-disciplinary and collaborative hub within LDF that launches targeted campaigns and undertakes innovative research to shape the civil rights narrative. In media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF. Please note that LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957—although LDF was originally founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights.
