“The Promise of Voter Equality: Examining the Voting Rights Act at 40” will feature nationally recognized legal scholars, historians, and attorneys who have litigated voting rights cases in South Carolina and across the nation.

“We hope this symposium will offer an opportunity for this region’s political and legal communities as well as the general public to learn about the challenges we face in ensuring that the act’s promise of voter equality is fully realized,” said Josie Brown, a professor in the USC School of Law and the event coordinator.

The daylong symposium will explore the Voting Rights Act’s legacy from a variety of angles through five sessions:

• 9 a.m.—“The Supreme Court’s Approach to the Protection of Voting Rights”
  
• 10:30 a.m.—“Anticipating the 2007 Pre-clearance Re-authorization Debate”
  
• 11:30 a.m.—“Obstacles to Minority Participation in the Election Process”
  
• 2 p.m.—“Race, Redistricting, and Representation”
  
• 3:45 p.m.—“Recent South Carolina Voting Rights Litigation”
  

A Voting Rights Symposium prequel event will be held at 4:30 p.m. Oct. 20 in the School of Law Auditorium. The topic will be “Voting Rights: A Historical Perspective on the African-American Struggle For the Right to Vote.” Speakers will be Steven Lawson, Rutgers University history department; Peyton McCrary, historian, U.S. Department of Justice, Voting Rights Division; and Lewis Burke, a professor in USC’s School of Law Dan Carter, a professor in USC’s Department of History, will be the moderator.
Lawson, author of Black Ballots, will discuss the African-American campaign for full enfranchisement in the period from World War II to the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. McCrary will discuss the history of the implementation of the Voting Rights Act from 1965 to the present. Burke will conclude the program by addressing the efforts by African-American lawyers and activists in South Carolina to enforce the right to vote.

A brief reception in the law school lobby will follow the discussion.

The symposium is sponsored by the USC School of Law, the Law School Alumni Association, and the S.C. Bar Continuing Legal Education Division. Co-sponsors include the South Carolina Black Lawyers Association and the Young Lawyers Division of the Bar, as well as the USC history department, political science department, and African American Studies Program.

For more information, go to www.law.sc.edu/votingrights.

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