Voter Wrongs: From The Plantation to the Penitentiary: Mass Incarceration and the Legacy of US Voter Suppression
11/1/2018 3:00-5:00 pm Class of 1947 room, Homer Babbidge Library
Panelist:
Dr. Melanie Newport, Assistant Professor of History
Dr. Alhaji Conteh, Assistant Professor in Residence, Africana Studies Institute
Tanya Rhodes Smith, Director of Nancy A. Humphreys Institute for Political Work
Kennard Ray, Chair of the Full Citizens Coalition Campaign to Unlock the Vote
With the midterm elections less than two weeks away we revisit our nation's history of voter purging, Voter-ID, "Use It or Lose It" and other voter suppression laws--including felony disenfranchisement (6.1 million incarcerated Americans today do not have the right to vote)--to more clearly understand the project of disenfranchisement and its stake in the United States. This panel will examine past and present structures of political power, criminal justice, health and community representation, and mass incarceration, to anchor a discussion of voting rights in America. Please join this distinguished panel of scholars and voting rights activists for a conversation about both our political present and future and the urgency of exercising your right to vote.
For more information, contact: Africana Studies Institute at africana@uconn.edu, 860-486-3630