Black Empowerment and White Mobilization: The Effects of the Voting Rights Act

Bernini, Andrea; Facchini, Giovanni; Tabellini, Marco; Testa, Cecilia

Abstract

How did southern whites respond to the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA)? Leveraging newly digitized data on county-level voter registration by race between 1956 and 1980, and exploiting pre-determined variation in exposure to the federal intervention, we document that the VRA increases both Black and white political participation. Consistent with the VRA triggering white counter-mobilization, the surge in white registrations is concentrated in counties where African Americans represent a political threat. Counter-mobilization leads to a short run increase in support for racially conservative candidates, and to a slow-down in local public spending salient to Black Americans, such as public sector employment and education.

Citation

Bernini, A., Facchini, G., Tabellini, M., & Testa, C. (in press). Black Empowerment and White Mobilization: The Effects of the Voting Rights Act. Journal of Political Economy,

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 20, 2025
• Deposit Date: Feb 3, 2025
• Journal: Journal of Political Economy
• Print ISSN: 0022-3808
• Electronic ISSN: 1537-534X
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/45034655