In his new book, Give Us the Ballot, journalist Ari Berman tells the story of these stirring moments, and tells it well. But unlike many civil rights chronicles, his account begins rather than ends in the 1960s. Via a series of vivid anecdotes, he describes the tumultuous history of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) from its enactment all the way to the present day. It’s an important and absorbing tale—though one that could have been narrated with a bit less certainty and a bit more nuance….
To be fair, Berman is a reporter writing a history of the VRA, not an academic trying to solve every puzzle posed by the law. The journalistic style of threading together anecdotes is not very conducive to abstract legal analysis. And a popular press book—thankfully—is not a law review article.
Still, it doesn’t seem like professional craft is why Berman skirts the hard questions about Sections 2 and 5. The more likely explanation is that they would have complicated the clear-cut story he wanted to tell. It’s easy to portray VRA plaintiffs as angels if all they ask for is the ballot. And we can all condemn VRA defendants who plot to deny minorities the franchise. But things become trickier when we start asking how easy it should be to vote, or how much representation minorities should have. Tricky or not, though, these are the issues that account for the continuing controversy over the VRA. Give Us the Ballot would have been stronger still had it fully considered what else minorities have sought.