Freedom Is Not Enough - (American Political Challenges) by Ronald W Walters (Paperback)

About the Book

Black voters can make or break a presidential election--look at the close electoral results in 2000 and the difference the disenfranchised Black vote in Florida alone might have made. Black candidates can influence a presidential election--look at the effect that Jesse Jackson had on the Democratic party, the platform, and the electorate in 1984 and 1988, and the contributions to the Democratic debates that Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton made in 2004. American presidential politics can't get along without the Black vote--witness the controversy over candidates' appearing (or not) at the NAACP convention, or the extent to which candidates court (or not) the Black vote in a variety of venues. It all goes back to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which formally gave African Americans the right to vote, even if after all these years that right is continuously contested. In Freedom Is Not Enough (a quote from Lyndon Johnson's 1965 commencement address to Howard University just before signing the Voting Rights Act), Ron Walters traces the history of the Black vote since 1965, celebrates its fortieth anniversary in 2005, and shows why passing a law is not the same as ensuring its enforcement, legitimacy, and opportunity.

Book Synopsis

Black voters can make or break a presidential election-look at the close electoral results in 2000 and the difference the disenfranchised Black vote in Florida alone might have made. Black candidates can influence a presidential election-look at the effect that Jesse Jackson had on the Democratic party, the platform, and the electorate in 1984 and 1988, and the contributions to the Democratic debates that Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton made in 2004. American presidential politics can't get along without the Black vote-witness the controversy over candidates' appearing (or not) at the NAACP convention, or the extent to which candidates court (or not) the Black vote in a variety of venues. It all goes back to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which formally gave African Americans the right to vote, even if after all these years that right is continuously contested. In Freedom Is Not Enough (a quote from Lyndon Johnson's 1965 commencement address to Howard University just before signing the Voting Rights Act), Ron Walters traces the history of the Black vote since 1965, celebrates its fortieth anniversary in 2005, and shows why passing a law is not the same as ensuring its enforcement, legitimacy, and opportunity.

Review Quotes

Freedom is Not Enough constitutes a serious evaluation of the current status of Black voters in the American political system by a distinguished political scientist. I recommend the book highly and would assign it as required reading in my courses on African American and minority politics.

[Walters's] combination of statistics, theory, history, and analysis puts a lot of crucial information in one place.

Freedom is Not Enough constitutes a serious evaluation of the current status of Black voters in the American political system by a distinguished political scientist. I recommend the book highly and would assign it as required reading in my courseson African American and minority politics....

Professor Ronald Walters reminds us of the empowerment objective of black voting, that was so much the goal of those whose work and sacrifices led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act. That goal was at the center of my campaigns for President of the United States in 1984 and 1988, and Walters expertly summarizes and even codifies them, suggesting that if other such campaigns are mounted in the context of a movement for social change, they may also fuel the large turnouts necessary to use elections as a potent resource to improve the lives of those who participate.

The most American thing you can do is vote. History informs the present, action shapes the future. Freedom is Not Enough reminds us we must understand where we've been as a society if we are to move forward to realize a new American dream for all people.

This book offers useful background information on black voting habits and how the black vote is both obtained and obstructed, with an emphasis on voter turnout rather than the issues blacks should base their votes upon. Suitable for academic and public libraries.

This is a must-read for those interested in black voting power as an important avenue for political inclusion.

Walter's message is one of empowerment and self-determination. . . . At a time when Republicans are trying to court the black community by talking up the benefits of President Bush's 'ownership society' and making known their desire to be active participants in the reauthorization of the Voting RIghts Act. . . . Walters's message is important, both to Republicans and Democrats.

Walters carefully explains why the Democratic Party's most faithful constituency-African Americans-is the least rewarded and appreciated and what can be done about it. His solution: an independent political strategy for African Americans.

About the Author

Ronald W. Walters is director of the African American Leadership Institute and professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland. His many books include Black Presidential Politics, winner of the American Political Science Association's Ralph Bunche Prize and White Nationalism, Black Interests, an "academic best seller," covered by C-SPAN. Walters is a political analysts who appears regularly in major print media, on National Public Radio's "News and Notes" with Ed Gordon, and writes a syndicated column for the National Newspaper Publishers Association.