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America’s Long History of Voting and Election Integrity

Historian Carol Anderson lays out the history of voting in the U.S. to understand the fight over elections today.
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 while Martin Luther King looks on, August 6, 1965. (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Since retaking office, President Donald Trump has attacked the election system, pushed voter ID laws, raided local election offices and claimed widespread voter fraud.

As the midterm elections approach, Political Breakdown begins a new series examining election integrity in America.

Host Marisa Lagos talks with historian Carol Anderson, a professor of African American Studies at Emory University and author of “One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying our Democracy.” They take a look at the nation’s history of voting from Reconstruction and Jim Crow to the civil rights era and the recent gutting of the Voting Rights Act.

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