Just Freedom: Inside Florida’s Decades-Long Voting Rights Battle - Softcover

Rivero, Daniel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0813081165 ISBN 13: 9780813081168

Verlag: University Press of Florida, 2025

Inhaltsangabe

The story of an extraordinaryexpansion of voting rights and the obstacles holding back its implementation

 

WhenFlorida citizens voted in 2018 to pass Amendment 4 to the state constitution, whichpromised to restore voting rights to people with past felony convictions, thedecision was celebrated as a civil rights victory and the nation’s largestexpansion of voting rights in almost 50 years. In Just Freedom, DanielRivero details the advocacy and action that led to this moment—and shows whatwent wrong in the years after the amendment’s passing.

Thestory begins in the Reconstruction era with Florida’s 1868 lifetime voting banfor people with past felony convictions. The infamous 2000 Bush/Gore electionbrought the ban to national attention, sparking a wave of activism against it. Riverofollows the 18-year path to Amendment 4 through the grassroots work of peopleincluding Howard Simon of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida andDesmond Meade, a formerly incarcerated man and president of the Florida RightsRestoration Coalition.

Ajournalist who has covered this story for many years, Rivero uses courtdocuments, meeting transcripts, archival videos, interviews, and eyewitness courtroomscenes and street marches to peel back the layers and reveal the motives that supportedand opposed this human rights initiative. He shows how political polarization,implementation challenges, and monetary interests have stalled the amendmentfrom becoming fully realized to this day.

Atonce a contemporary legal tale and a series of interwoven stories of people atthe center of the fight, this is the account of how 1.4 million Floridians gainedthe right to vote—and the obstacles still preventing them from doing so. JustFreedom will raise questions and provoke conversations about the lastinghold of Jim Crow–era policies, the power of money, and the nature of theAmerican criminal justice system.

 

Avolume in the series Government and Politics in the South, edited by Sharon D.Wright Austin and Angela K. Lewis-Maddox

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Daniel Rivero is an award-winning investigative reporter, producer, and host for WLRN Public Radio in Miami. His investigations have appeared in the Miami Herald, NPR, the Guardian, ABC News, Splinter, and other outlets.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: University Press of Florida
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2025
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0813081165
• ISBN 13: 9780813081168
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 194
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar