A conference on the future of the Voting Rights Act will be held at Duke University April 7.
The conference, titled "W(h)ither the Voting Rights Act? Agreements and Contestations in the Debate over its Renewal," is sponsored by Duke's Center for the Study of Race Ethnicity and Gender in the Social Sciences (REGSS).
Scholars say the upcoming debate on the Voting Rights Act (VRA) --- Section 5 is up for renewal and Section 2 may be amended in 2007 --- likely will be as contentious as past debates and raise fundamental questions about the utility and feasibility of the VRA. Section 5 requires jurisdictions covered under the VRA to pre-clear with the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division any changes to their voting procedures or electoral districts. Section 2 prohibits voting practices or procedures that discriminate on the basis of race, color or membership in one of the identified language minority groups.
The conference will explore the issues that will likely generate the most debate. A schedule of speakers, which includes nationally known scholars and litigators actively involved in voting rights, is available online.
The conference is free and open to the public. (Lawyers who wish to earn 6 hours of North Carolina continuing legal education credit will pay $75.) It will be held from 8 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. in room 240 of the JohnHopeFranklinCenter, 2204 Erwin Road.
Registration is required before March 30.
"The Voting Rights Act of 1965 has been the most successful piece of legislation protecting the right of racial minorities to vote that we have seen in the United States," said Paula McClain, a professor of political science and co-director of REGSS. "Individuals interested in voting rights, attorneys who represent jurisdictions covered by the VRA and representatives of organizations whose goal it is to protect the rights of racial minorities to vote should attend the conference and participate in the discussions."
REGSS is an affiliate of Duke's Social Science Research Institute (SSRI), an interdisciplinary program whose core mission is to catalyze and produce pioneering social science research and methods.
"A product of the 1960s civil rights era, the VRA has been characterized as the most effective civil rights law ever enacted," said Alexandra Cooper, SSRI's administrative director. "This important conference, which draws on a diverse array of disciplines to examine the pending debate over this important law, will create exactly the types of interactions that SSRI exists to foster."
For more information, visit SSRI's website.