Describe the most important advances and denials (governmental and societal laws and practices) of voting rights in 20th-century America and identify specifically the governmental actors, as well as the persons and parties/groups, that fought for and against the expansion and denial of voting rights.

INSTRUCTIONS: Papers must be typed 12 font and double spaced, with a text in the range of five pages (and no more than six). Papers should additionally have a footnote/reference page. There should be no fewer than six references appropriately cited and beyond assigned Module materials. Papers MUST include footnotes or endnotes in a standard format. All standard formats are acceptable, as long as they are used consistently. Provide a reference when you use someones ideas (this is perfectly okay). USE YOUR OWN WORDS whenever possible. No paper should use more than 2-3 IMPORTANT quotations, and they should be no more than 3-4 lines. Use the assigned course materials in Modules 1-4 and my Discussion Board posts and links to web sites and your own additional research from academically legitimate and evidence-based sources. This might include government data, empirical data, and/or scholarly and journalistic publications. REMEMBER: No links – submit full paper text. The assignment follows:
NOTE: A great deal has been going on with respect to elections and voting rights, since the start of the term. I have not added to the assignment language. Perhaps the fastest way to access what has occurred in the past 6 weeks is a well worded search of Google news. The Brennan Center has a voting issues May roundup dated May 28. That may be the best and quickest summary.
The final paper is on elections and voting – voting rights and voter denial and suppression – as one critical component in the story of democracy (and its absence) in the United States. The historical backdrop can be briefly summarized as follows:
There were no nation-state democracies in 1776 or 1789, and none in the 19th century. At the time, the worlds governments and almost all political thinkers and officials feared and opposed democracy. Governments were monarchies and/or authoritarian (and worse). The colonies and the new nation broke new ground in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution: People – understood as adult white male property owners but no others – should choose some of their political leaders!
Even as our national and state governments embraced what was at the time this revolutionary doctrine, they simultaneously rejected the idea that the rest of the population – the overwhelming majority – should have the power to choose their leaders.
From our earliest history, the United States has embodied this fundamental contradiction: Democracy Yes! But only for some and not others. That contradiction – this ebb and flow – has profound consequences for the meaning of democracy and our country. Put simply, how can democracy be for the few or some? Isnt democracy a political order in which the people rule? Or, as Lincoln said: Government of the people, by the people, for the people?
Your paper will explore the meaning of democracy and voting rights in the United States as follows:
Page 1: Introduction – Write one paragraph (no more than 1/2 of the first page) that introduces and summarizes pages 1-5 up until but not including the evaluation on much of page 5.
Page 1-2: Describe the most important advances and denials (governmental and societal laws and practices) of voting rights in 19th-century America and identify specifically the governmental actors, as well as the persons and parties/groups, that fought for and against the expansion and denial of voting rights.
Page 2-3: Describe the most important advances and denials (governmental and societal laws and practices) of voting rights in 20th-century America and identify specifically the governmental actors, as well as the persons and parties/groups, that fought for and against the expansion and denial of voting rights.
Page 3-5: Describe the most important advances and denials (governmental and societal laws and practices) of voting rights in America from 2010 until today and identify specifically the governmental actors, as well as the persons and parties/groups, that are fighting for and against the expansion and denial of voting rights.
Page 5: How do you evaluate, in no more than 3/4 of a page, this ongoing struggle over voting rights? What does this struggle mean and what is its significance for your understanding of democracy and politics in America? How, if at all, do your findings affect your view of American political life?
Page 6: Endnotes and references.

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