Recent elections have shown that political organizations still matter. Voting rights are again being challenged and new de jure and de facto voter suppression techniques are again on the rise. Yet so too are the number of political organizations attempting to build, sustain, and employ the strategic capacity necessary for successful legal mobilization. The Alabama Democratic Conference's (ADC) political use of law to desegregate Alabama politics and challenge the use of race as a barrier to political life is unrivaled in American history. The ADC is the most successful political organization ever in the usage of law to enforce voting rights.
Understanding how the Alabama Democratic Conference developed, sustained, and employed statewide strategic capacity and effectively capitalized on the support structure for legal mobilization for over twenty years will inform our understanding of social movement theory and provide insights that can be adapted to fit the needs of rights advocacy groups across the United States and in other western-style democracies. This research project will create a repository of research materials on minority political organizations and their legal campaigns. A short documentary will be created and disseminated to a wide audience, from local to national civic and political organizations and from secondary schools to graduate seminars.
Graduate Research Assistant:
Ana Carolina de Paula Silva
Undergraduate Research Assistants:
Rachel Rosenthal Anna Cay Vernon
Maya Shields Olivia Warren
Noa Glashow Colleen Young
Ayanna Lovelady
Past Research Assistants:
Rachel Adenan Anna Larsen
Avery OckoMichalak Jack Corry
Understanding how the Alabama Democratic Conference developed, sustained, and employed statewide strategic capacity and effectively capitalized on the support structure for legal mobilization for over twenty years will inform our understanding of social movement theory and provide insights that can be adapted to fit the needs of rights advocacy groups across the United States and in other western-style democracies. This research project will create a repository of research materials on minority political organizations and their legal campaigns. A short documentary will be created and disseminated to a wide audience, from local to national civic and political organizations and from secondary schools to graduate seminars.
Graduate Research Assistant:
Ana Carolina de Paula Silva
Undergraduate Research Assistants:
Rachel Rosenthal Anna Cay Vernon
Maya Shields Olivia Warren
Noa Glashow Colleen Young
Ayanna Lovelady
Past Research Assistants:
Rachel Adenan Anna Larsen
Avery OckoMichalak Jack Corry
