AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
A new book challenges young adults to view recent political events in the U.S. through the lens of voting rights. It's called "Represent: The Unfinished Fight For The Vote." Marc Favreau is a co-author.
MARC FAVREAU: When we see men and women on the Capitol steps on January 6, 2021, waving Confederate flags, that's really a message. It's like a historical reference. You know, we've seen this before. We've seen what white supremacy is capable of in American politics, and we've seen it succeed.
RASCOE: Flash back to South Carolina in 1876 during the Reconstruction era - there's an election for governor.
FAVREAU: Black men can now vote in 1876, and of course, white Southerners fought it tooth and nail. They helped organize this organization called the Red Shirts, which were also known as rifle clubs. These were militias, men with guns, planning to overthrow legitimately elected government.
RASCOE: The book lays out how their violence and intimidation ultimately work to suppress Black votes. The candidate supported by the Red Shirts declared victory. "Represent's" other co-author, Michael Eric Dyson, says this undemocratic impulse can be traced to America's birth.
MICHAEL ERIC DYSON: We didn't start as a democracy. The founding fathers didn't want all the people to be able to vote because you had overwhelming numbers of enslaved people, one fifth of the population. You had women who were part of the population. You had Native people who were part of the population.
RASCOE: Marc, I appreciate how you celebrate some of the lesser-known heroes of voting rights like Zitkala-Sa. Tell us about this indigenous leader.
FAVREAU: So, in 1884, there was this really pivotal Supreme Court case called Elk v. Wilkins. And Elk v. Wilkins said that Native American people could not be citizens, and therefore could not vote. So Zitkala-Sa was born into this world of complete powerlessness. But she first gained fame as this brilliant writer, this chronicler of Native American legends and stories. I mean, she was published as a teen in Harper's Magazine, in the Atlantic, and she ends up playing this really influential role in the movement for Native American rights - writing, speaking, lobbying in Washington and all over the country.
RASCOE: Robert Smalls, the Black congressman, during reconstruction - I knew a little of his story, but I didn't realize how he was able to persist, even as the rights that were given to Black people during Reconstruction regarding voting were being stripped away.
DYSON: Yeah, well, you know, his background was rather remarkable. Remember, he had piloted a ship in South Carolina and turned it into a Union warship. So, you know, even before he gets involved in politics, he had become a heroic figure. But Robert Smalls, after, you know, the Civil War, was the face of the political destiny of Black people, the face of what we were able to achieve in the 19th century.
RASCOE: Michael, you note that election denialism and the myths of voter fraud have long histories in the U.S. Can you talk about how far back do these ideas of voter fraud or the election was rigged, it didn't turn out the way it should have - how has that impacted voting rights?
DYSON: Now, you would think that Mr. Trump is an outlier. Of course, he's outlying a lot. But the point is, there were all kinds of claims when Black people were able finally to cast a ballot. They were not simply, like there is today, arguments about voter fraud, and therefore, what are we going to do about it? And they often turn violent - there was also the effort to stigmatize and demonize those figures as essentially unintelligent and incapable of exercising the franchise. And as a result of that, you know, making all kinds of arguments about fraud, about who was able to vote, Black people so-called smuggled in and allowed to vote in ways that weren't legal or at least permissible in a particular state. So the broad swathe of arguments made about the illegitimacy of people of color, of women, of Native peoples, and the like is nothing new, but Marc, you can fill in the particular struggles that manifest that.
FAVREAU: I think it's interesting to see who gets accused of voter fraud across U.S. history - propertyless white men, especially immigrants, women trying to vote, free Black people in the North, formerly enslaved people in the South. So anytime a group of people do not have political power and are pushing to get that power, the myth of voter fraud kind of gets trotted out. And what it says is, you know, we can't trust these people to handle voting. But what it means is we don't want them to have power. These accusations of voter fraud - they always precede any actual evidence of voter fraud. I mean, that's definitely the case today when the experts tell us there is essentially no voter fraud in the U.S. and that it's statistically insignificant.
RASCOE: Looking at 2024 now, do you think America has become more or less democratic with time?
FAVREAU: Yeah, I would say it's a complicated equation because more people can vote today, and yet somehow democracy is as fragile as it's ever been. Ever since 1965 when the Voting Rights Act was signed, we have seen the enemies of democracy just come right back with the whole series of subterfuges, intimidation, unregulated money, lies. And I think what makes it even more dangerous today is this historical forgetting. Efforts to suppress history and efforts to suppress the vote are kind of two sides of the same coin.
DYSON: It would behoove younger people and older people as well to study the franchise, because one of the most effective ways of disenfranchisement is to make people believe that their votes don't count.
FAVREAU: And here's the secret. If you don't vote, you are still being counted. Someone in power somewhere is looking at you and saying, we don't have to represent them. We don't have to worry about them. We can safely ignore their dreams. So whether you vote or don't vote, it matters. You are being counted. And I think that's the lesson all voters have to kind of recognize as American citizens.
RASCOE: That's Marc Favreau and Michael Eric Dyson, authors of the new book, "Represent: The Unfinished Fight For The Vote." Thank you both so much.
FAVREAU: Thank you.
DYSON: Thank you for having us. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
