The Unfinished Agenda of the Selma-Montgomery 

Civil Rights March

 
The Unfinished Agenda of The Selma-Montgomery Voting Rights March
by
The Editors of Diverse:  Issues in Higher Education

with
Dara N. Byrne, Ph.D.

Foreword and commentary by
Tavis Smiley

Reflections by
William E. Cox

Published in March 2005, in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the landmark protest that changed the history of voting in the United States, this collection of original essays and narratives reflects on how far we’ve come since 1965—and how far we still need to go.

John Wiley and Sons (March 2005 ) ISBN: 0-471-TK U.S.

Contributors and Excerpts: Martin Luther King, Jr., Lyndon Baynes Johnson, Joseph E. Lowery, John Lewis, Clayborne Carson, J.L. Chestnut, Jr., Ronald Walters, Carol Swain, Kenny J. Whitby, Henry Sanders, Andrew Young, Bill Clinton, Lani Guinier, Keith W. Reeves, Jamie Fellner, Marc Mauer, Ella Baker, Tex G. Hall, Raúl Yzaguirre, Margaret Fung, Gayle Tate, David E. Wilkins, Louis DeSipio, Pei-Te Lien, Theodore M. Shaw, Debo P. Adegbile, Manning Marable, Heidi Kiiwetinepinesiik Stark


Also includes: Timeline in Civil Rights History; Multicultural Impact: The Unfinished Agenda for Asian American Voters, Indian Voters: Awakening a Sovereign Capacity, and Latino Voters: Lessons Learned and Misunderstood

Excerpts:

"This book is an excellent argument for ceaseless vigilance and activism.  As Dr. King said in his letter from a Selma jail, one of the most difficult lessons of the movement was that "you cannot depend on American institutions to function without pressure; real change depends on continued creative action."

-Tavis Smiley, from Foreword

"It's too easy to dismiss Americans who don't take advantage of their right to vote as 'stuck' or 'stupid.'  I don't accept such complacency, but especially after the election of 2000, I do understand how people think our democracy is dysfunctional, and why they are just turned off by the entire process." 

-Tavis Smiley, from Foreword

 "Changing the rules requires innovations in the electoral process itself.  The traditional plurality system in American elections gives the victory to the candidate with the most votes.  This system is not only easily usurped by corporate interests, but also, by its nature, manipulates public preferences in time-worn outcomes.  In multi-candidate, citywide elections, in which minority constituencies represent one-third of the total vote or less, it becomes virtually impossible to select candidates who represent their interests."

- Manning Marable, from Chapter 16, Where Do We Go From Here?

"Latinos (and Latino advocates of VRA extension) must also examine how electoral rules, particularly advance registration requirements, disproportionately discourage Latino and other minority electoral participation.  The truism of lower participation among the young, the less educated, and those with lower incomes, is, in part, a function of the fact that individuals with these characteristics are less confident in negotiating the complexities of segregation and voting."

- Louis DeSipio, from Chapter 13, Latino Voters