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Voting Rights War
The Voting Rights War tells the story of the courageous struggle to achieve voting equality through more than one hundred years of work by the NAACP at the Supreme Court. Readers take the journey for voting rights from slavery to the Plessy v. Ferguson case that legalized segregation in 1896 through today’s conflicts around voter suppression. The NAACP brought important cases to the Supreme Court that challenged obstacles to voting: grandfather clauses, all-White primaries, literacy tests, gerrymandering, vote dilution, felony disenfranchisement, and photo identification laws.
This book highlights the challenges facing American voters, especially African Americans, the brave work of NAACP members, and the often contentious relationship between the NAACP and the Supreme Court. This book shows the human price paid for the right to vote and the intellectual stamina needed for each legal battle. The Voting Rights War follows conflicts on the ground and in the courtroom, from post-slavery voting rights and the formation of the NAACP to its ongoing work to gain a basic right guaranteed to every citizen.
Whether through litigation, lobbying, or protest, the NAACP continues to play an unprecedented role in the battle for voting equality in America, fighting against prison gerrymandering, racial redistricting, the gutting of the Voting Rights Act, and more. The Voting Rights War highlights the NAACP’s powerful contribution and legacy.
This book highlights the challenges facing American voters, especially African Americans, the brave work of NAACP members, and the often contentious relationship between the NAACP and the Supreme Court. This book shows the human price paid for the right to vote and the intellectual stamina needed for each legal battle. The Voting Rights War follows conflicts on the ground and in the courtroom, from post-slavery voting rights and the formation of the NAACP to its ongoing work to gain a basic right guaranteed to every citizen.
Whether through litigation, lobbying, or protest, the NAACP continues to play an unprecedented role in the battle for voting equality in America, fighting against prison gerrymandering, racial redistricting, the gutting of the Voting Rights Act, and more. The Voting Rights War highlights the NAACP’s powerful contribution and legacy.
258 pages, Paperback
Published November 16, 2017
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August 24, 2019
This is a must read for those who care about the future.
The real history of our country is never a carefree walk-in-the-park read; but this is especially the case when the focus is upon how the various powers that be treated the people of color.
So why, we might ask, would we abandon our comfort zone and put ourselves through another round of this often painful and sometimes shameful story with Gloria Browne-Marshall’s, “THE VOTING RIGHTS WAR: 100 YEARS OFCB: The NAACP and the Ongoing Struggle for Justice”?
Actually, three reasons do come quickly to mind.
First: Achieving and maintaining fairness at the polling place lies at the very foundation of our form of government. The stakes are high — The legitimacy of our democracy rests upon it.
Second: The story, even with all its casualties and misfortunes, supports Martin Luther King Jr.’s claim that “the ark of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.“
And third: Our guide, our author, is a Constitutional scholar with an undying commitment to research and fact; but also a playwright with a storytellers ear and a heart for the human meanings beneath the events.
Now a Constitutional Law professor at John Jay College of the City University of New York, Browne-Marshall was once herself an NAACP civil rights lawyer. A previous book that she wrote, “Race, Law, and American Society: 1607 – Present,” traces the bigger picture of African Americans’ bondage under the law and how they continue to free themselves from those bonds. A frequent contributor to CNN on matters of race, she also is a playwright whose works have been staged in New York City.
Her new book concentrates on the disenfranchisement of African Americans and their fight for the right to vote. But it is also, in another sense, an homage to those who preceded her. Speaking of her time at the NAACP legal defense and education fund, she says: “[O]utside of long days, constant travel, and interoffice intrigues, I did not bear the great weight of those civil rights activists and lawyers who came before me. I often think of the sacrifices made by those young, idealistic activists who risked their lives the change the world.” (p.3)
It is with such simultaneously hard-nosed but sensitive prose that she takes us on the journey. Beginning with a user-friendly extensive timeline of the laws, the events and their consequences of the issue at hand, we are reminded of much that needs refreshing, and informed of many details that inevitably are new to us.
From there we jump right into the founding of the NAACP in the chapter “Born of Bloodshed. “It was precipitated by the riots in Springfield Illinois in 1908” … and a brief retelling of that story might give a sense, In a sort of metaphorical way, of most, if not all, of what is to follow.
“The riots begin with reports of a Negro raping a white woman. On August 15, 1908 the Illinois state journal reported, under the headline, “Dragged from her bed and outraged by a Negro “ that, “Frenzied Mob Sweeps City Wreaking Bloody Vengeance for Negro’s Heinous Crime” But Browne-Marshall tells us the real facts: “But the claims of rape were lies. No White woman had been raped by a Black man. Mabel Hallman, a married White woman, lied to cover up her affair with a married White man by accusing George Richardson, a Black man, of rape.” (p. 6)
But there was resistance. The moral conscience of a determined few who might be in a position to help had been re-kindled. Within two years the organization that was to become the NAACP emerged from the casualties, death, and destruction of the Springfield riots.
Moorfield Storey, A Boston blue blood white attorney with the heritage of anti-racist belief, “had taken on the challenge of navigating the advancement of Black people through treacherous territory with little money, an unpaid staff, and no legal arsenal, against entrenched opposition with power in every American institution and a penchant for murder with impunity” (p. 19)
With the tenor of the times and the mindset of the powers that be referred to above, we proceed on our journey. Browne-Marshall takes us through all of it; through the —
*The unbelievable: Grandfather clauses which was called that, “because if a Black man’s grandfather had not been eligible to vote in 1865, his descendants were not eligible to vote in 1915.” (p. 42)
*The glory years of the Warren court.
*The gory years of lynchings (including — to illustrate the depth of the terror —a burning at the stake where the remains were sold as souvenirs).
*The inevitable setbacks and occasional legal victories in the age of separate but equal.
*The politics and law of literacy tests, gerrymandering, all-white primaries, felony disenfranchisement and the endless creativity of how white majorities suppressed the voting rights of black minorities.
*The internal squabbles and the story of who would lead the NAACP — whites or blacks.
*The high rhetoric and lasting progress of the Johnson civil rights legislation.
*And the challenges of the future with a conservative court.
All in all, this is history made relevant. The book is appropriate for the general reader, for use in all history courses, or even to assist students of the law who are looking for an overview of 100 years of cases and context set forth in a coherent and understandable way.
In closing, Browne-Marshall is not afraid to switch hats from the historian to the civil rights attorney. She had begun her work with a quote from the 19th century Negro spiritual, “sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us.“ She ends with the words of voting rights activist Boynton Robinson, "For those who say they stand on my shoulders, I say get down and get to work."
The real history of our country is never a carefree walk-in-the-park read; but this is especially the case when the focus is upon how the various powers that be treated the people of color.
So why, we might ask, would we abandon our comfort zone and put ourselves through another round of this often painful and sometimes shameful story with Gloria Browne-Marshall’s, “THE VOTING RIGHTS WAR: 100 YEARS OFCB: The NAACP and the Ongoing Struggle for Justice”?
Actually, three reasons do come quickly to mind.
First: Achieving and maintaining fairness at the polling place lies at the very foundation of our form of government. The stakes are high — The legitimacy of our democracy rests upon it.
Second: The story, even with all its casualties and misfortunes, supports Martin Luther King Jr.’s claim that “the ark of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.“
And third: Our guide, our author, is a Constitutional scholar with an undying commitment to research and fact; but also a playwright with a storytellers ear and a heart for the human meanings beneath the events.
Now a Constitutional Law professor at John Jay College of the City University of New York, Browne-Marshall was once herself an NAACP civil rights lawyer. A previous book that she wrote, “Race, Law, and American Society: 1607 – Present,” traces the bigger picture of African Americans’ bondage under the law and how they continue to free themselves from those bonds. A frequent contributor to CNN on matters of race, she also is a playwright whose works have been staged in New York City.
Her new book concentrates on the disenfranchisement of African Americans and their fight for the right to vote. But it is also, in another sense, an homage to those who preceded her. Speaking of her time at the NAACP legal defense and education fund, she says: “[O]utside of long days, constant travel, and interoffice intrigues, I did not bear the great weight of those civil rights activists and lawyers who came before me. I often think of the sacrifices made by those young, idealistic activists who risked their lives the change the world.” (p.3)
It is with such simultaneously hard-nosed but sensitive prose that she takes us on the journey. Beginning with a user-friendly extensive timeline of the laws, the events and their consequences of the issue at hand, we are reminded of much that needs refreshing, and informed of many details that inevitably are new to us.
From there we jump right into the founding of the NAACP in the chapter “Born of Bloodshed. “It was precipitated by the riots in Springfield Illinois in 1908” … and a brief retelling of that story might give a sense, In a sort of metaphorical way, of most, if not all, of what is to follow.
“The riots begin with reports of a Negro raping a white woman. On August 15, 1908 the Illinois state journal reported, under the headline, “Dragged from her bed and outraged by a Negro “ that, “Frenzied Mob Sweeps City Wreaking Bloody Vengeance for Negro’s Heinous Crime” But Browne-Marshall tells us the real facts: “But the claims of rape were lies. No White woman had been raped by a Black man. Mabel Hallman, a married White woman, lied to cover up her affair with a married White man by accusing George Richardson, a Black man, of rape.” (p. 6)
But there was resistance. The moral conscience of a determined few who might be in a position to help had been re-kindled. Within two years the organization that was to become the NAACP emerged from the casualties, death, and destruction of the Springfield riots.
Moorfield Storey, A Boston blue blood white attorney with the heritage of anti-racist belief, “had taken on the challenge of navigating the advancement of Black people through treacherous territory with little money, an unpaid staff, and no legal arsenal, against entrenched opposition with power in every American institution and a penchant for murder with impunity” (p. 19)
With the tenor of the times and the mindset of the powers that be referred to above, we proceed on our journey. Browne-Marshall takes us through all of it; through the —
*The unbelievable: Grandfather clauses which was called that, “because if a Black man’s grandfather had not been eligible to vote in 1865, his descendants were not eligible to vote in 1915.” (p. 42)
*The glory years of the Warren court.
*The gory years of lynchings (including — to illustrate the depth of the terror —a burning at the stake where the remains were sold as souvenirs).
*The inevitable setbacks and occasional legal victories in the age of separate but equal.
*The politics and law of literacy tests, gerrymandering, all-white primaries, felony disenfranchisement and the endless creativity of how white majorities suppressed the voting rights of black minorities.
*The internal squabbles and the story of who would lead the NAACP — whites or blacks.
*The high rhetoric and lasting progress of the Johnson civil rights legislation.
*And the challenges of the future with a conservative court.
All in all, this is history made relevant. The book is appropriate for the general reader, for use in all history courses, or even to assist students of the law who are looking for an overview of 100 years of cases and context set forth in a coherent and understandable way.
In closing, Browne-Marshall is not afraid to switch hats from the historian to the civil rights attorney. She had begun her work with a quote from the 19th century Negro spiritual, “sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us.“ She ends with the words of voting rights activist Boynton Robinson, "For those who say they stand on my shoulders, I say get down and get to work."
March 20, 2020
The Voting Rights War, by professor Gloria Browne-Marshall, provides a scholarly legal examination of the NAACP’s 100-year battle against the white supremacy efforts of the KKK and the codified discrimination by elected government officials. The book stands as a relevant reminder of the ongoing struggle for justice for people of color in the U.S.—as the subtitle explains.
"Letters from victims spoke of their valiant efforts to live, work, and vote, and the daily racism that met each mundane task. The threat was inherent in each act of self-determination." (p. 71)
The 161-page book is textbook-worthy. It offers an additional 40 pages of appendixes, notes, and bibliographical information to allow for deeper research into the courtroom confrontations waged throughout the NAACP’s existence.
Dr. Browne-Marshall’s prescient book unwinds the historical record of significant legal issues that are top of mind in 2020. In addition, this book gives a masterful explanation of important but lesser-discussed occurrences in the 20th century, such as the Lincoln Day Call, the Colfax Massacre, and peonage.
Three other topics are outlined here:
* The Senate filibuster has blocked antilynching legislation since the presidency of FDR and has made it possible to legally maintain racist systems, writes Professor Browne-Marshall. Senators who filibustered antilynching proposals have, thus, used legal means to prevent equal protection under the law (safety) for African Americans. Professor Browne-Marshall links the threat of a brutal mob lynching with voter suppression and intimidation of yesteryear and today.
«Like proposed antilynching laws, the Geyer anti-poll tax bill passed the House of Representatives but was defeated by filibuster in the Senate, in 1942. States used poll taxes to restrict Black voters. Poll taxes had to be paid before a registered voter could vote at the polls.» (p. 85)
At the time of The Voting Rights War’s release (Nov. 2017), the U.S. House of Representatives had not yet reached its most recent passage of an antilynching bill, now called H.R. 35 and cited as the “Emmett Till Antilynching Act.” As of March 2020, the Act is awaiting Senate approval and, potentially, the signature of the president.
* Using membership lists to squelch participation in civic life is nothing new. A new wave of activist groups accused law enforcement of monitoring them before the 2016 election. As far back as 1955, according to Dr. Browne-Marshall, Black teachers were being asked to reveal their membership in the NAACP or risk termination. The NAACP stepped in to argue that members of the organization had the right to associate freely and without intimidation. (p. 100)
* At the time of the presidential primary vote of 2020, 60 percent of the voting population of South Carolina was Black, according to exit polling statistics. Dr. Browne-Marshall establishes when the state’s Black voters first got a toehold on the franchise.
«The NAACP announced that the southern Black vote had doubled between 1948 and 1952. An increase in lynching and mob violence met the Black community’s new sense of pride and civic expectation.»
« [O]n July 23, 1948, Democratic Party chair W.P. Baskin advised county chairs to enroll all constitutionally qualified electors. [And] … that more than thirty thousand elated Blacks in South Carolina registered to vote in the Democratic primary.» (p. 92)
The Voting Rights War opens with an invaluable timeline of selected events and cases. Reading the list is, in itself, an in-depth legal course. The book ends with a stern message:
IF YOU DON’T VOTE,
YOU DON’T COUNT.
~~Nita Wiggins is a Paris, France-based journalism professor and the author of Civil Rights Baby: My Story of Race, Sports, and Breaking Barriers in American Journalism.
# # #
"Letters from victims spoke of their valiant efforts to live, work, and vote, and the daily racism that met each mundane task. The threat was inherent in each act of self-determination." (p. 71)
The 161-page book is textbook-worthy. It offers an additional 40 pages of appendixes, notes, and bibliographical information to allow for deeper research into the courtroom confrontations waged throughout the NAACP’s existence.
Dr. Browne-Marshall’s prescient book unwinds the historical record of significant legal issues that are top of mind in 2020. In addition, this book gives a masterful explanation of important but lesser-discussed occurrences in the 20th century, such as the Lincoln Day Call, the Colfax Massacre, and peonage.
Three other topics are outlined here:
* The Senate filibuster has blocked antilynching legislation since the presidency of FDR and has made it possible to legally maintain racist systems, writes Professor Browne-Marshall. Senators who filibustered antilynching proposals have, thus, used legal means to prevent equal protection under the law (safety) for African Americans. Professor Browne-Marshall links the threat of a brutal mob lynching with voter suppression and intimidation of yesteryear and today.
«Like proposed antilynching laws, the Geyer anti-poll tax bill passed the House of Representatives but was defeated by filibuster in the Senate, in 1942. States used poll taxes to restrict Black voters. Poll taxes had to be paid before a registered voter could vote at the polls.» (p. 85)
At the time of The Voting Rights War’s release (Nov. 2017), the U.S. House of Representatives had not yet reached its most recent passage of an antilynching bill, now called H.R. 35 and cited as the “Emmett Till Antilynching Act.” As of March 2020, the Act is awaiting Senate approval and, potentially, the signature of the president.
* Using membership lists to squelch participation in civic life is nothing new. A new wave of activist groups accused law enforcement of monitoring them before the 2016 election. As far back as 1955, according to Dr. Browne-Marshall, Black teachers were being asked to reveal their membership in the NAACP or risk termination. The NAACP stepped in to argue that members of the organization had the right to associate freely and without intimidation. (p. 100)
* At the time of the presidential primary vote of 2020, 60 percent of the voting population of South Carolina was Black, according to exit polling statistics. Dr. Browne-Marshall establishes when the state’s Black voters first got a toehold on the franchise.
«The NAACP announced that the southern Black vote had doubled between 1948 and 1952. An increase in lynching and mob violence met the Black community’s new sense of pride and civic expectation.»
« [O]n July 23, 1948, Democratic Party chair W.P. Baskin advised county chairs to enroll all constitutionally qualified electors. [And] … that more than thirty thousand elated Blacks in South Carolina registered to vote in the Democratic primary.» (p. 92)
The Voting Rights War opens with an invaluable timeline of selected events and cases. Reading the list is, in itself, an in-depth legal course. The book ends with a stern message:
IF YOU DON’T VOTE,
YOU DON’T COUNT.
~~Nita Wiggins is a Paris, France-based journalism professor and the author of Civil Rights Baby: My Story of Race, Sports, and Breaking Barriers in American Journalism.
# # #
June 21, 2026
Important topic and some interesting information about the legal and legislative battles for voting rights, with focus on the NAACP’s role.
I have seldom read a book more in need of a heavy line edit — at both the sentence level and across paragraphs, the writing is murky, due to both stylistic infelicities and poor organization. Events and people are re-introduced several times, often only a paragraph or two after their first mention. There are occasional non-sequitors where something gets mentioned in a throwaway sentence in the middle of discussing something else, only to then be properly introduced later in the chapter. In some cases the language is unintentionally confusing due to imprecision or rhetorical flourishes that don’t quite work. Sometimes information that you’d expect more follow-up on — e.g. just how literacy test requirements were banned — is glossed over.
There are some interesting details in here, but I would recommend this only to those who already have a solid foundational knowledge of the civil rights movement.
I have seldom read a book more in need of a heavy line edit — at both the sentence level and across paragraphs, the writing is murky, due to both stylistic infelicities and poor organization. Events and people are re-introduced several times, often only a paragraph or two after their first mention. There are occasional non-sequitors where something gets mentioned in a throwaway sentence in the middle of discussing something else, only to then be properly introduced later in the chapter. In some cases the language is unintentionally confusing due to imprecision or rhetorical flourishes that don’t quite work. Sometimes information that you’d expect more follow-up on — e.g. just how literacy test requirements were banned — is glossed over.
There are some interesting details in here, but I would recommend this only to those who already have a solid foundational knowledge of the civil rights movement.
Read
April 16, 2020Definitely a light law school book. Worth every word. If you don't vote, you don't count.
November 15, 2020
Browne-Marshall is a professor, so she isn't a writer. But I'm very grateful to have been able to deep dive into a subject I don't know enough about.
July 3, 2025
The legal scholar Gloria J. Browne-Marshall wrote The Voting Rights War: The NAACP and the Ongoing Struggle for Justice. The book examines the role of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in the struggle for voting rights from the NAACP's founding in 1909 until 2016. The book was published in 2016. Browne-Marshall also provides a brief legal history of African Americans in the United States before 1909. Browne-Marshall believes that voting is fundamental to being an equal part of the political life and society of the United States. Browne-Marshall agrees with Frederick Douglass that voting is essential to protecting a people or community in the United States society. Since the book's publication, the struggle for voting rights has continued (Halpern 2025). The late Reverend C.T. Vivian wrote the foreword of the book. Each of the seven chapters begins with a section of lyrics from “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” a song written by the NAACP activist James Weldon Johnson in 1899. This voting rights activist participated in the 1965 Selma, Alabama, march, which ultimately led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The book contains appendices. The book contains black and white photographs. The book has a section of notes, a timeline, and a bibliography. Browne-Marshall’s book, The Voting Rights War, is a well-done history of the NAACP's role in the struggle for voting rights in the United States from 1909 until 2016 for African Americans.
Works Cited:
Abdelfathah, Rund, Arablouei, Ramtin, Kaplan-Levenson, Laine, Wu, Lawrence, York, Jamison, Caine, Julie, Whitley-Berry, Victoria, & Shah, Parth. 2020. “The Most Sacred Right,” National Public Radio-Throughline, October 29, Retrieved: June 20, 2022. The Most Sacred Right : Throughline : NPR
Dweyer, Colin. 2020. “C.T. Vivian, Civil Rights Leader And Champion Of Nonviolent Action, Dies At 95.” National Public Radio. July 17. Retrieved: July 2, 2025. C.T. Vivian, Civil Rights Leader And Champion Of Nonviolent Action, Dies At 95 : NPR
Halpern, Sue. “Trump Is Still Trying To Undermine Elections.” The New Yorker. March 12, 2025. Trump Is Still Trying to Undermine Elections | The New Yorker
Works Cited:
Abdelfathah, Rund, Arablouei, Ramtin, Kaplan-Levenson, Laine, Wu, Lawrence, York, Jamison, Caine, Julie, Whitley-Berry, Victoria, & Shah, Parth. 2020. “The Most Sacred Right,” National Public Radio-Throughline, October 29, Retrieved: June 20, 2022. The Most Sacred Right : Throughline : NPR
Dweyer, Colin. 2020. “C.T. Vivian, Civil Rights Leader And Champion Of Nonviolent Action, Dies At 95.” National Public Radio. July 17. Retrieved: July 2, 2025. C.T. Vivian, Civil Rights Leader And Champion Of Nonviolent Action, Dies At 95 : NPR
Halpern, Sue. “Trump Is Still Trying To Undermine Elections.” The New Yorker. March 12, 2025. Trump Is Still Trying to Undermine Elections | The New Yorker
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