State laws disenfranchising felons and ex-felons have existed in many American states since before the Civil War. However, in the aftermath of the Civil War, new, more severe restrictions were passed as part of the Jim Crowe Era laws aimed at preventing black citizens from exercising their new rights. While many of these laws were eventually stricken down by Supreme Court decisions, felon disenfranchisement provisions survived scrutiny. This opened the door for white backlash against the gains made by the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and ‘70s to manifest itself via the development of the massive prison industrial system over the last 40 years. This paper’s inquiry is focused on the political consequences of the huge racial discrepancies in criminal justice outcomes in the United States, specifically on whether the disenfranchisement of felons and ex-felons depresses turnout among eligible black voters. I use an analysis of black voter turnout and its relationship to the severity of state disenfranchisement laws from 1980 through 2016 to explore three hypotheses related to these effects. The results suggest that, when all or most ex-felons are disenfranchised, the resulting dilution of the political efficacy and power of the communities into which they re-enter depresses turnout among eligible black voters in those communities. Additionally, I find evidence of significant depression in eligible black turnout in Southern states, suggesting the need for further investigation into the perpetuation of racial inequalities in specific geographic loci in the United States.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/33061 |
| Date | 07 November 2018 |
| Creators | Cushing-Daniels, Michaela |
| Contributors | Christenson, Dino P. |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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