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http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp019s161933m| Title: | Democracy rising: The end of Florida’s history of felony disenfranchisement and launch of a new age of empowerment |
| Keywords: | Prisoners—Suffrage—Florida Suffrage—Florida Criminal justice, Administration of—Florida |
| Issue Date: | Feb-2019 |
| Publisher: | Advancement Project |
| Place of Publication: | Los Angeles |
| Description: | Felony disenfranchisement is not a new phenomenon. Its roots are lodged deep in the founding of this nation. Laws and practices that deny the right to vote to individuals with felony convictions have existed since the time of the ratification of the United States Constitution. These laws are a remnant of the era of slavery, and they were applied with vigor to the Black community following the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, which granted former slaves the right to vote.1 As a part of a backlash against Reconstruction efforts to address the inequity of slavery, felony disenfranchisement became a potent tool for the White establishment to stymie the empowerment of the Black community. Floridians are quite familiar with this story. Florida was one of four states that permanently disenfranchised those with felony convictions. Felony disenfranchisement was one among many simultaneous challenges faced by Returning Citizens and the neighborhoods where they live. The correlation between socio-economic hardships and high numbers of disenfranchised Returning Citizens in these neighborhoods in these counties suggests a relationship between community conditions and the political franchise of Returning Citizens. The statistical relationships raise questions about the extent of the impact of felony disenfranchisement on both those disenfranchised and the communities in which they reside—communities that are often predominantly Black and already beset with over-policing, over-incarceration and hindered in their efforts to change the conditions of their community. Disenfranchised Returning Citizens were unable to influence elections in their communities and were denied a voice in local decision-making related to the socio-economic conditions they experienced. The absence of large swathes of voters from local and state-level elections has real-world effects. |
| URI: | http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp019s161933m |
| Related resource: | https://advancementproject.org/resources/democracyrising/ |
| Appears in Collections: | Monographic reports and papers (Publicly Accessible) |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democracy-Rising-online-viewing-190312.pdf | 41.14 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Download |
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