POLISCI 389 - Race & Voting in America Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts, court cases, legal rules, and research studies from POLISCI 389 on Race & Voting in America.

Race as a Social Construct (Coates)

The idea that race is created by human society and culture, not by fixed biology. How race is defined changes across different times and places.

Racial Formation (Omi and Winant)

The ongoing process where society and government reshape what race means through political struggles and social movements.

Racial Project

A strategy that gives meaning to race and uses that meaning to divide up power, rights, or resources in society.

Legal Construction of Race (Haney López)

The idea that laws do not just recognize race; they create racial groups by giving physical traits legal meaning and deciding who gets rights.

Three Levels of Legal Construction of Race

How law shapes race physically (marriage and immigration rules), socially (giving meaning to skin color), and materially (deciding who gets jobs, land, and voting rights).

1790 Naturalization Rule

An early U.S. law that allowed only free white persons to become naturalized citizens, making whiteness a requirement for citizenship.

Ozawa and Thind Cases

Two Supreme Court cases trying to define whiteness. The Court used science to reject a Japanese applicant, then rejected science and used common sense to reject an Indian applicant, showing legal race was made up.

Antebellum Democratization (Keyssar)

The period before the Civil War when voting expanded for white men by removing property requirements, but actively excluded Black people, women, and poor people.

New York Property Requirement for Black Voters

A pre-Civil War rule that dropped property requirements for white voters while keeping strict property requirements for Black voters to limit their political power.

Literacy Tests

Reading and writing tests used before voting that seemed neutral on paper, but were used unfairly by white election officials to block Black citizens from voting.

Grandfather Clauses

Laws that let people skip voting tests if their ancestors could vote before the Civil War, protecting uneducated white voters while blocking Black voters.

Poll Taxes

A fee required to vote, which acted as a financial barrier that kept poor citizens, especially poor Black Americans, from voting.

Secret Ballot / Australian Ballot (Kousser)

A voting reform using official government ballots without political party symbols, which created an unintended literacy barrier for uneducated voters.

Gray and Jenkins Analysis

Research proving that Jim Crow rules like poll taxes and felony voting bans caused major drops in Southern voter turnout.

Williams v. Mississippi

A Supreme Court ruling that allowed voting restrictions like literacy tests because the laws did not explicitly mention race in their text.

Guinn v. United States

A Supreme Court decision that struck down grandfather clauses because their historical rules directly violated the 15th Amendment.

Lassiter v. Northampton County Board of Elections

A Supreme Court decision stating that literacy tests were constitutional as long as the law itself was race-neutral on paper.

15th Amendment

A constitutional amendment prohibiting voting denial based on race, though states used legal loopholes to bypass it.

Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA)

A major federal law passed to eliminate discriminatory voting practices and enforce voting rights for racial minorities.

Section 2 of the VRA

A nationwide rule in the Voting Rights Act that prohibits any voting policy or structure that results in racial discrimination.

Section 5 of the VRA

A rule requiring states with a history of discrimination to get federal government approval before changing any voting laws.

Section 4(b) Formula

The formula in the VRA used to determine which states had a history of voting discrimination and needed federal approval under Section 5.

Shelby County v. Holder

A Supreme Court decision that struck down the Section 4(b) coverage formula, effectively ending federal preclearance under Section 5.

Louisiana v. Callais

A court case showing that proving racial voting discrimination under Section 2 now requires stronger evidence of intentional racism rather than just unequal results.

Photo ID Disparities (Barreto et al.)

Research showing that Black, Latino, and Asian voters are less likely to possess government photo IDs required by modern voting laws.

North Dakota Native American ID Study

A study showing how voter ID laws requiring street addresses hurt Native Americans living on reservations who rely on P.O. Boxes.

Voter Challenge Laws

Rules that allow private citizens to challenge another person's right to vote, which can be used to intimidate voters.

Felony Disenfranchisement

Taking away voting rights from people with felony convictions, which disproportionately impacts Black citizens due to racial disparities in the justice system.

Surrogate Mobilization

When disenfranchised individuals encourage eligible friends and family members to register and vote on their behalf.

Social Network Disenfranchisement Effects (Anoll and Israel-Trummel)

Research showing that felony voting bans reduce voter turnout among the friends and family members of excluded individuals.

Capital-Punishment Stereotype Study (Eberhardt et al.)

A study showing Black defendants with stereotypically Black facial features received the death penalty more often when victims were white.

Post-Shelby Turnout Gap Research (Morris and Miller)

Research showing that the voting turnout gap between white and minority voters grew faster in areas after federal preclearance was ended.

Dow v. United States (1915)

A court ruling that classified Syrian immigrants as white, allowing them to gain naturalized citizenship.

Common Knowledge Criterion

The legal standard from United States v. Thind that defined whiteness based on popular public opinion instead of scientific classifications.

MENA Census Category Classification

The U.S. census rule counting Middle Eastern and North African people as white, hiding their specific community needs and experiences.

Civil Rights Direct Action and Legislation

Nonviolent protests and marches that pressured the federal government into passing the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

VRA Section 2 vs. Section 5 Enforcement Mechanism

Section 2 requires lawsuits after a bad law passes, while Section 5 stopped discriminatory laws before they went into effect.

Naturalization Act of 1870

A law expanding citizenship eligibility to Black immigrants, while continuing to exclude Asian immigrants.

Voter Identification Policy Debate

Supporters say voter ID stops voter fraud, while opponents argue it places an unfair burden on minority and low-income voters.

Native American Rural Polling Barriers

Obstacles to voting on reservations, such as lack of physical street addresses, long distances to election offices, and limited language assistance.

Reconstruction Era Political Incorporation

The period after the Civil War when newly freed Black men voted in large numbers and elected hundreds of Black officials.