It was the biggest suppression of voting rights in our country's history since Jim Crow. And the thread of race runs from the beginning to the end of my book.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 brought an end to the ugly Jim Crow period in American history.

By the turn of the twentieth century, every state in the South had laws on the books that disenfranchised blacks and discriminated against them in virtually ever sphere of life, lending sanction to a racial ostracism that extended to schools, churches, housing, jobs, restrooms, hotels, restaurants, hospitals, orphanages, prisons, funeral homes, morgues, and cemeteries. Politicians competed with each other by proposing and passing every more stringent, oppressive, and downright ridiculous legislation (such as laws specifically prohibiting blacks and whites from playing chess together.)

We have defeated Jim Crow, but now we have to deal with his son, James Crow Jr., esquire.

In the 1920s, Jim Crow Mississippi was, in all facets of society, a kleptocracy.

Voting rights are constitutional rights.