Hey there, it is the NPR Politics Podcast.

I'm Danielle Kurtzleben, I cover Politics.

We're going deep on voting rights for our book club, which is a chance for our listeners

to connect over books about politics.

And our pick today is one person no vote, how voter suppression is destroying our democracy.

Its author is Carol Anderson.

She is the Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies at Emory University

and she is with us today.

Welcome, Carol.

Ah, thank you so much for having me, Danielle.

Start off by talking us through what the book is about and why you wrote it.

The why is the 2016 election?

And we all remember that election and we remember the results.

And one of the things that struck me was that the pundits kept saying, well, you know,

Hillary lost because black folks just didn't show up.

And you know, black folks didn't show up for Hillary because, you know, Lord, she's Hillary.

And black folks don't like Hillary because, you know, she's Hillary.

And this this narrative of black folks just didn't show up because black folks don't like

Hillary just it struck me wrong because this was the first presidential election in 50

years without the protection of the Voting Rights Act.

And to me, that had a lot to do with the 7% drop in black voter turnout in 2016.

And so I set out to make clear what the Wizard of Oz really looked like to take us behind

...