Carolina Academic Press

Authored by a political scientist who formerly served as a U.S. Department of Justice Voting Section policy analyst, this book is written by an “insider” who understands the practicalities of how the Act works as well as the larger challenges and opportunities of racial politics in the past, present, and future. The Law Is Good draws from case and statutory law at the federal, state, and local levels; original empirical research, including field work and interviews; census data spanning five decades; scholarly commentary; and government documents, reports, and maps. The book uses a rich yet accessible set of materials to paint a portrait of two southern communities and how the struggle for voting rights and black empowerment involved many actors. The book contains a unique appendix with reprints of sample U.S. Department of Justice letters and other official communications obtained through the federal Freedom of Information Act that illustrate how communities interact with the federal government as required by the Voting Rights Act.