Black Empowerment and White Mobilization: The Effects of the Voting Rights Act

Arbeitspapier

The 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA) paved the road to Black empowerment. How did southern whites respond? Leveraging newly digitized data on county-level voter registration rates by race between 1956 and 1980, and exploiting pre-determined variation in exposure to the federal intervention, we document that the VRA increases both Black and white political participation. Consistent with the VRA triggering countermobilization, the surge in white registrations is concentrated where Black political empowerment is more tangible and salient due to the election of African Americans in county commissions. Additional analysis suggests that the VRA has long-lasting negative effects on whites' racial attitudes.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 16220

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior ; Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination ; State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations: General ; Regional and Urban History: U.S.; Canada: 1913-
• Subject: civil rights ; race ; voting behavior ; enfranchisement

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Bernini, Andrea ; Facchini, Giovanni ; Tabellini, Marco ; Testa, Cecilia
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2023

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/278918
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET