Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-wq2xx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T11:36:48.497Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The 1982 Voting Rights Act Extension as a “Critical Juncture”: Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole, and Republican Party-Building

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 August 2021

Richard Johnson Open the ORCID record for Richard Johnson [Opens in a new window]
Richard Johnson*
Affiliation:
School of Politics & International Relations, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
*
Corresponding author: Richard Johnson, Email: richard.johnson@qmul.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Republican support for the 1982 Voting Rights Act (VRA) extension is a puzzle for scholars of racial policy coalitions. The extension contained provisions that were manifestly antithetical to core principles of the “color-blind” policy alliance said to dominate the GOP. Recent scholarship has explained this puzzling decision by arguing that conservatives were confident that the VRA's most objectionable provisions could be undone by the federal bureaucracy and judiciary, while absolving Republicans of the blame of being against voting rights. This article suggests that the picture is more complicated. Applying the concept of “critical junctures” to the 1982 VRA extension, the article highlights the importance of actors’ contingent decisions and reveals a wider range of choices available to political entrepreneurs than has been conventionally understood. Highlighting differing views within the Reagan administration, this article also identifies a wider range of reasons why Republicans supported the act's extension, including career ambition, party-building, policy agenda advancement, and genuine commitment, rather than simply a defensive stance as implied by recent histories.

Keywords

Voting rightsRepublican Partycritical juncturesReagan administration
Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in American Political Development , Volume 35 , Issue 2 , October 2021 , pp. 223 - 238
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Springfield Republican, December 20, 1964.

2. Schickler, Eric, Racial Realignment: The Transformation of American Liberalism, 1932–1965 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016)Google Scholar.

3. Brooke, Edward, Bridging the Divide (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2007), 6Google Scholar.

4. Schickler, Racial Realignment, 16.

5. Lowndes, Joseph, From the New Deal to the New Right: Race and the Southern Origins of Modern Conservatism (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008), 155Google Scholar.

6. Perlstein, Rick, Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus (New York: Nation Books, 2009), 503Google Scholar.

7. Perlstein, Rick, Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010), 114Google Scholar.

8. Carmines, Edward and Stimson, James, Issue Evolution: Race and the Transformation of American Politics (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Edsall, Thomas and Edsall, Mary, Chain Reaction (New York: Norton, 1991)Google Scholar; Karol, David, Party Position Change in American Politics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009), 109–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9. King, Desmond and Smith, Rogers, Still a House Divided (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011), 10–11, 88Google Scholar; Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo, Racism without Racists, 4th ed. (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2013)Google Scholar; King, Desmond and Smith, Rogers, “Without Regard to Race,” Journal of Politics 76, no. 4 (2014): 967Google Scholar.

10. Skrentny, John, The Ironies of Affirmative Action (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11. Johnson, Richard and King, Desmond, “Race Was a Motivating Factor,” Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy 35, no. 1 (2019): 75–95CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12. Milkis, Sidney and Tichenor, Daniel, Rivalry and Reform: Presidents, Social Movements, and the Transformation of American Politics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019), 230Google Scholar.

13. Dumbrell, John, “Affirmative Action During the Reagan Presidency,” Politics 8, no. 2 (1988): 30–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14. Robin, Corey, The Enigma of Clarence Thomas (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2019), 111–112Google Scholar.

15. Thernstrom, Abigail, Whose Votes Count? Affirmative Action and Minority Voting Rights (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987), 9Google Scholar.

16. Skowronek, Stephen, The Politics Presidents Make: Presidential Leadership from John Adams to George Bush (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1993), 414Google Scholar.

17. Berman, Ari, Give Us the Ballot (New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2015), 175Google Scholar.

18. McDonald, Laughlin, “The Quiet Revolution in Minority Voting Rights,” Vanderbilt Law Review 42 (1989): 1249–98Google Scholar; Davidson, Chandler and Grofman, Bernard, Quiet Revolution in the South: The Impact of the Voting Rights Act, 1965–1990 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994)Google Scholar.

19. May, Gary, Bending Towards Justice: The Voting Rights Act and the Transformation of American Democracy (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2015), 214Google Scholar.

20. Philpot, Tasha, Race, Republicans, and the Return of the Party of Lincoln (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2007), 1CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21. “Voting Rights Act Extension by the Senate Seen Likely as Dole Engineers Compromise,” Wall Street Journal, May 4, 1982.

22. Berman, Give Us the Ballot, 157.

23. Alan Ryskind, “Dole Paves Way for Voting Rights Collapse,” Human Events: The National Conservative Weekly, May 15, 1982.

24. Pinderhughes, Dianne, “Black Interest Groups and the 1982 Extension of the Voting Rights Act,” in Blacks and the American Political System, ed. Perry, H. and Parent, W. (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2005)Google Scholar.

25. Thernstrom, Whose Votes Count?, 97.

26. May, Bending Towards Justice, 222.

27. Berman, Give Us the Ballot, 2015.

28. Rhodes, Jesse, Ballot Blocked: The Political Erosion of Voting Rights (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2017), 3Google Scholar.

29. Ibid., 113.

30. Pinderhughes, “Black Interest Groups,” 216; May, Bending Towards Justice, 228); Berman, Give Us the Ballot, 157.

31. Thernstrom, in Whose Votes Count?, devotes a few more sentences, but they are fairly dismissive about the extent of Dole's involvement.

32. Mary McGrory, “Voting Rights Makes Strange Bedfellows,” Washington Post, May 9, 1982.

33. Quoted in Thernstrom, Whose Votes Count?, 121.

34. King, Desmond and Smith, Rogers, “The Last Stand? Shelby County v. Holder, White Political Power, and America's Racial Policy Alliances,” Du Bois Review 13, no. 1 (2016): 958–71, 6CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

35. Nadine Cohodas, “Senate Panel Split Over Voting Rights Bill,” Congressional Quarterly, April 24, 1982, 921.

36. “Man of the Year,” Time, January 5, 1981.

37. Cohodas, “Senate Panel Split,” 921.

38. Thernstrom, Whose Votes Count?, 84, 102.

39. “White House Wins Round in Voting Rights Act Fight,” May 25, 1982. Quoted in Boyd, Thomas and Markman, Stephen, “The 1982 Amendments to the Voting Rights Act: A Legislative History,” Washington and Lee Law Review 40, no. 4 (1983): 1411Google Scholar.

40. Memorandum from Sherrie Cooksey to Ken Duberstein, Status of Voting Rights Act Legislation in the Senate, January 6, 1982, Reagan Presidential Library.

41. Dole Announces Voting Rights Compromise, May 3, 1982, series 22, box 1, folder 75, Bob Dole Archives.

42. See McKenzie, Roy and Krauss, Ronald, “Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act: An Analysis of the 1982 Amendment,” Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 19 (1984): 155–92Google Scholar; Aarons, Dwight, “Nationwide Preclearance of Section Five of the 1965 Voting Rights Act,” National Black Law Journal 11, no. 1 (1988): 93–116Google Scholar; Tokaji, Daniel, “Applying Section 2 to the New Vote Denial,” Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 50 (2015): 439–89Google Scholar.

43. McKenzie and Krauss, “Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act,” 162.

44. “Grassley Holds the Key,” Des Moines Register, March 18, 1982.

45. Memorandum from Sherrie Cooksey to Ken Duberstein, Recommended Telephone Call, March 19, 1982, Reagan Library.

46. Ibid.

47. Cohodas, “Senate Panel Split.”

48. 1980 U.S. Census.

49. Dole Hails House Vote on Voting Rights Extension, June 23, 1982, series 22, box 1, folder 107, Dole Archives.

50. Albert Hunt, “Voting Rights Act Extension by the Senate Seen Likely as Dole Engineers Compromise,” Wall Street Journal, May 4, 1982.

51. Capoccia, Giovanni, “Critical Junctures,” in The Oxford Handbook of Historical Institutionalism, ed. Fioretos, O., Falleti, T., and Sheingate, A. (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2016), p. 97Google Scholar.

52. Ryskind, “Dole Paves Way for Voting Rights Collapse.”

53. Ibid.

54. Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen ‘brokered the compromise’ that produced the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (John Skrenty, The Ironies of Affirmative Action [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996], 196)Google Scholar.

55. Mary McGrory, “Voting Rights Makes Strange Bedfellows,” Washington Post, May 9, 1982.

56. Voting Rights, April 1982–September 1983, series 8, subject files, 1961–1996, box 58, folder 7, Dole Archives.

57. Mahoney, James, “Path Dependence in Historical Sociology,” Theory and Society 29, no. 4 (August 2000): 507–48CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

58. Capoccia, “Critical Junctures.”

59. McDonald, “The Quiet Revolution”; Davidson and Grofman, Quiet Revolution in the South.

60. Ertman, Thomas, “The Great Reform Act of 1832 and British Democratization,” Comparative Political Studies 43, no. 8/9 (2010): 1000–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

61. Capoccia, “Critical Junctures.”

62. The Section 2 intent standard has survived, but Section 5 was rendered inoperable by a Supreme Court ruling in Shelby County v. Holder in 2013.

63. Thernstrom, Whose Votes Count?, 105.

64. Capoccia, Giovanni and Keleman, R. Daniel, “The Study of Critical Junctures,” World Politics 59, no. 3 (April 2007), 348CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

65. Ertman, “The Great Reform Act of 1832,” 1009.

66. Ibid., 1001.

67. Sheingate, Adam, “Political Entrepreneurship, Institutional Change, and American Political Development,” Studies in American Political Development 17 (Fall 2003): 185CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

68. Ibid., 2003, 187.

69. Dahl, Robert, Who Governs? (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1961), 6Google Scholar.

70. Sheingate, “Political Entrepreneurship,” 188.

71. Collier, Ruth Berins and Collier, David, Shaping the Political Arena: Critical Junctures, the Labor Movement, and Regime Dynamics in Latin America (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991)Google Scholar.

72. Orey, Bryon D'Andra, “Explaining Black Conservatives: Racial Uplift or Racial Resentment?,” The Black Scholar 34, no. 1 (2004): 18–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lewis, Angela, “Black Conservatism in America,” Journal of African American Studies 8 (2005): 3–13CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

73. Quoted in Yuill, Kevin, Richard Nixon and the Rise of Affirmative Action: The Pursuit of Racial Equality in an Era of Limits (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006), 176Google Scholar.

74. See Thurber, Timothy, Republicans and Race: The GOP's Frayed Relationship with African Americans (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 2013)Google Scholar; Riguer, Leah Wright, The Loneliness of the Black Republican: Pragmatic Politics and the Pursuit of Power (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Farrington, Joshua, Black Republicans and the Transformation of the GOP (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016)Google Scholar.

75. “Dole Names Black to RNC Executive Unit,” Pittsburgh Courier, January 27, 1973.

76. Robert T. Hartman Files, box 28, folder 5—Republican National Committee, Gerald Ford Presidential Library.

77. Simeon Booker, “Ticker Tape USA,” Jet, April 22, 1976.

78. “Silent Majority of Blacks Formed,” New York Times, July 12, 1970.

79. Riguer, The Loneliness of the Black Republican, 264.

80. Ibid., 269.

81. General—Bair [1 of 4], 1985, series 1: Legislative Relations, 1969–1996, subseries 1: Assistant Leader Files, 1968–1996, box 132, folder 1, Dole Archives.

82. Rigueur, The Loneliness of the Black Republican,.

83. General—Bair, 1985, series 1: Legislative Relations, 1969–1996, subseries 1: Assistant Leader Files, 1968–1996, box 132, folder 1, Dole Archives.

84. Rigueur, The Loneliness of the Black Republican, 261.

85. “Reagan Invites Key Blacks to Think Tank Session,” JET, December 1980.

86. Rigueur, The Loneliness of the Black Republican, 290.

87. Farrington, Black Republicans and the Transformation of the GOP.

88. Felzenberg, Alvin, Governor Tom Kean: From the New Jersey Statehouse to the 9-11 Commission (New Brunswick, NJ: Rivergate Books, 2006), 344Google Scholar.

89. Farrington, Black Republicans and the Transformation of the GOP.

90. “Dole Saves Voting Bill,” The Salina Journal, May 9, 1982.

91. General—Bair, 1985, series 1: Legislative Relations, 1969–1996, subseries 1: Assistant Leader Files, 1968–1996, box 132, folder 1, Dole Archives.

92. Voting Rights, April 1982–September 1983, series 8: subject files, 1961–1996, box 58, folder 7, Dole Archives.

93. Ibid.

94. Thernstrom, Whose Votes Count?, 135.

95. Philpot, Race, Republicans, and the Return of the Party.

96. Nteta, Tatishe and Schaffner, Brian, “Substance and Symbolism: Race, Ethnicity, and Campaign Appeals in the United States,” Political Communications 30, no. 2 (2013): 232–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

97. Rhodes, Ballot Blocked, 15.

98. General—Bair, 1985, series 1: Legislative Relations, 1969–1996, subseries1: Assistant Leader Files, 1968–1996, box 132, folder 1, Dole Archives.

99. Philpot, Race, Republicans, and the Return of the Party, 19.

100. Capoccia, “Critical Junctures.”

101. Kabaservice, Geoffrey, Rule and Ruin (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2012), 379Google Scholar.

102. “Riding High,” Emporia Gazette, October 14, 1982.

103. Rae, Nicol, The Decline and Fall of the Liberal Republicans (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1989), 195Google Scholar.

104. Lee, Frances, Insecure Majorities: Congress and the Perpetual Campaign (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2016)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

105. Ryskind, “Dole Paves Way for Voting Rights Collapse.”

106. Ibid.

107. Thernstrom, Whose Votes Count?, 135.

108. Voting Rights for the Handicapped and Elderly, 1984, series 1: Legislative Relations, 1969–1996, subseries 2: Kansas Projects, 1973–1994, box 385, folder 2, Dole Archives.

109. “Voting Rights Retreat,” Face Off, March 3, 1987, Dole Archives.

110. Jack Beatty, “Dole Could Lose the Presidency in Winning Nomination,” Topeka Capital-Journal, July 23, 1987.

111. General—Bair, 1985, series 1: Legislative Relations, 1969–1996, subseries 1: Assistant Leader Files, 1968–1996, box 132, folder 1, Dole Archives.

112. Civil Rights, 1996, series 8: 1996 Campaign-Policy Research, subseries 6, box 161, folder 3, Dole Archives.

113. Sheingate, “Political Entrepreneurship,” 188.

114. Kingdon, John, Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies (New York: Longman, 1984), 124Google Scholar.

115. Mary McGrory, “Left Touts Sen Dole as Voting Rights Hero,” Hutchinson News, May 11, 1982.

116. Rae, The Decline and Fall of the Liberal Republicans, 178.

117. Thernstrom, Whose Votes Count?, 116.

118. Author interview with Edward Brooke, Coral Gables, FL, May 3, 2014.

119. Memorandum from Elizabeth Dole to Edwin Meese, James Baker, and Michael Deaver, Voting Rights Signing Ceremony, June 23, 1982, Reagan Library.

120. “Voting Rights Law Has Met Its Goals,” The State, Columbia, SC, May 22, 1981; “Water Under the Bridge,” The Augusta Chronicle-Herald, Augusta, GA, April 7, 1981.

121. Author interview with Edward Brooke, May 3, 2014.

122. OA5102, Voting Rights Materials (4), Meese Files, Reagan Library.

123. OA5102, Voting Rights Materials (3), Meese Files, Reagan Library.

124. Ibid.

125. Ibid.

126. Lou Cannon, President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime (New York: Public Affairs, 2000 [1991]), 152.

127. “Reagan on Decision-Making, Planning, Gorbachev, and More,” Fortune, September 15, 1986.

128. Voting Rights Act—1981 (3 of 8), box 60, Elizabeth Dole Files, Reagan Library.

129 Memorandum from Michael Uhlmann to Edwin Meese, Re Statement on Voting Rights Act, October 30, 1981, Reagan Library.

130 OA 9460, Voting Rights Act (2), Meese Files, Reagan Library.

131 Voting Rights Act, 1981 (8 of 8), box 60, Elizabeth Dole Files, Reagan Library.

132 Voting Rights Statement, Speechwriting, Office of Research Office, box 48, Reagan Library.

133 Thernstrom, Whose Votes Count?, 107.

134 Robert McConnell, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Legislative Affairs, Memorandum: Q&A's That Related to the Attorney General's Voting Rights Testimony, Cicconi Papers, Reagan Library.

135 OA 9460, Voting Rights, Meese Files, Reagan Library.

136 William Bradford Reynolds, “The Voting Rights Act Works As Is,” Washington Post, February 11, 1982.

137 Memorandum from Ken Duberstein to Jim Baker, Ed Meese, and Mike Deaver, Voting Rights Hearings, January 28, 1982, Reagan Library.

138 Edward Schmults, Extension of the Voting Rights Act, attachment C, March 1, 1982, Cicconi Papers, Reagan Library.

139 Benjamin Hooks, Dear Senator, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, April 20, 1982, Cicconi Papers, Reagan Library.

140 Suggested Discussion Points: Legislative Strategy Meeting on Voting Rights Act, April 26, 1982, Cicconi Papers, Reagan Library.

141 Summary on Compromise Amendment, n.d., Cicconi Papers, Reagan Library.

142 Voting Rights Act Meeting, April 26, 1982, Cicconi Papers, Reagan Library.

143 Appointment of Melvin L. Bradley as a Special Assistant to the President, April 19, 1982. Public Papers of the President of the United States: Ronald Reagan, January 1 to January 2, 1982, Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1983, pp. 490–491.

144 Briefing Memorandum for the President: Voting Rights Meeting, May 3, 1982, Cicconi Papers, Reagan Library.

145 Ryskind, “Dole Paves Way for Voting Rights Collapse.”

146 Memorandum from Mel Bradley to Martin Anderson, Voting Rights Act—Discussion Points, November 4, 1981, Reagan Library.

147 Alan Baron, “Voting Rights and Political Risks,” The Baron Report, no. 125 (May 25, 1981).

148 Memorandum from Diana Lozano to Elizabeth Dole, Briefing Paper on the Voting Rights Act, June 10, 1981, series I, box 60: Voting Rights Act—1981 (2 of 8), Elizabeth Dole Files, Reagan Library.

149 Ibid.

150 Ibid.

151 Ibid.

152 Fields, Corey, Black Elephants in the Room: The Unexpected Politics of African American Republicans (Oakland: University of California Press, 2016), 125CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

153 Memorandum from Diana Lozano to Elizabeth Dole, Briefing Paper on the Voting Rights Act, June 10, 1981, series I, box 60: Voting Rights Act—1981 (2 of 8), Elizabeth Dole Files, Reagan Library.

154 Rigueur, The Loneliness of the Black Republican, 270.

155 “Senators Dole and Specter Honored in Their Hometown,” Republican and Herald, December 29, 1980.

156 Memorandum from Elizabeth Dole to Richard Darman, Voting Rights Act, October 7, 1981, Reagan Library.

157 Nadine Cohodas, “Sen Robert Dole: The Man in the Middle,” Congressional Quarterly, May 8, 1982.

158 Skrenty, The Ironies of Affirmative Action, 186, 225.

159 “Talking Points on Voting Rights Act for Meeting with Senators Baker, Thurmond, and Hatch,” November 3, 1981 (Reagan Library).

160 OA5102, Voting Rights Materials (4), Meese Files, Reagan Library.

161 Memorandum from Mel Bradley to Marty Anderson, The 1965 Voting Rights Act, September 24, 1981, Reagan Library.

162 Voting Rights Act—1981 (8 of 8), box 60, Elizabeth Dole Files, Reagan Library.

163 Memorandum from Nat Scurry to Ed Harper, Notes on Testimony regarding the “1965 Voting Rights Act,” June 3, 1981, Reagan Library.

164 Memorandum from Michael Uhlmann to Martin Anderson, Preliminary observations on extension of the Voting Rights Act, April 17, 1981, Voting Rights Act Material, Voting Rights Act Materials (2), OA5102, Meese Files, Reagan Library.

165 Memorandum from Elizabeth Dole to Edwin Meese, James Baker, Michael Deaver, Voting Rights Signing Ceremony, June 23, 1982, Reagan Library.

166 Vigil, Maurilo, Hispanics in American Politics: The Search for Political Power (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1987), 33Google Scholar.

167 Nteta and Schaffner, “Substance and Symbolism.”

168 Memorandum from Michael Uhlmann to Edwin Meese, James Baker, et al., Voting Rights Act Extension, September 9, 1981, Reagan Library.

169 Memorandum from Kenneth Cribb to Edwin Meese, Timing of Voting Rights Position, June 10, 1981, Reagan Library.

170 Carmines and Stimson, Issue Evolution, 54.

171 Rhodes, Ballot Blocked, 108, 107.

172 Wolters, Raymond, The Right Turn: William Bradford Reynolds, the Reagan Administration, and Black Civil Rights (New York: Routledge, 1996)Google Scholar.

173 Fields defines black Republicans’ race-consciousness as “support [for] Republican policies because of their perceived benefits to blacks” (Fields, Black Elephants in the Room, 29).

174 Farrington, Black Republicans and the Transformation of the GOP.

175 Fields, Black Elephants in the Room.

176 Rhodes, Ballot Blocked, 95.

177 Rigueur, The Loneliness of the Black Republican.

178 Pinderhughes, “Black Interest Groups.”

179 Rhodes, Ballot Blocked, 4.

180 Ibid., 187.

181 Schickler, Racial Realignment.

182 Carmines and Stimson, Issue Evolution, xii.

183 See Skrenty, The Ironies of Affirmative Action; Mendelberg, Tali, The Race Card (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

184 Lowndes, From the New Deal to the New Right, 134.

185 Robert Vann, quoted in Buni, Andrew, Robert L. Vann of the Pittsburgh Courier: Politics and Black Journalism (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1974), 194Google Scholar.