Black empowerment and white mobilization: the effects of the Voting Rights Act
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...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Working paper |
| Language: | English |
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University of Oxford
2023
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| _version_ | 1797110381250871296 |
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| author | Bernini, A Facchini, G Tabellini, M Testa, C |
| author_facet | Bernini, A Facchini, G Tabellini, M Testa, C |
| author_sort | Bernini, A |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | 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. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T07:54:12Z |
| format | Working paper |
| id | oxford-uuid:31142725-a0e6-48d4-86e7-b2212a65c52d |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T07:54:12Z |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| publisher | University of Oxford |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:31142725-a0e6-48d4-86e7-b2212a65c52d2023-08-14T14:59:46ZBlack empowerment and white mobilization: the effects of the Voting Rights ActWorking paperhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_8042uuid:31142725-a0e6-48d4-86e7-b2212a65c52dEnglishSymplectic ElementsUniversity of Oxford2023Bernini, AFacchini, GTabellini, MTesta, CThe 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. |
| spellingShingle | Bernini, A Facchini, G Tabellini, M Testa, C Black empowerment and white mobilization: the effects of the Voting Rights Act |
| title | Black empowerment and white mobilization: the effects of the Voting Rights Act |
| title_full | Black empowerment and white mobilization: the effects of the Voting Rights Act |
| title_fullStr | Black empowerment and white mobilization: the effects of the Voting Rights Act |
| title_full_unstemmed | Black empowerment and white mobilization: the effects of the Voting Rights Act |
| title_short | Black empowerment and white mobilization: the effects of the Voting Rights Act |
| title_sort | black empowerment and white mobilization the effects of the voting rights act |
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