Reagan Re-Ups The Voting Rights Act (1982)

This Day

Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia

History

4.6 • 982 Ratings

🗓️ 30 June 2024

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It's June 30th. This day in 1982, Ronald Reagan signed a bill re-authorizing the Voting Rights Act, among a lot of pressure to pass the civil rights legislation -- but also a growing legal strategy to undermine the enforcement of the provisions.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why Reagan ultimately supported the act, and how legal advisors - including future Supreme Court Justice John Roberts - planted the seeds for taking the teeth out of the act.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia.
0:07.0	My name is Jody Avergan.
0:10.0	This day, June 29th, 1982 President Ronald Reagan signed a 25-year extension of the Voting Rights Act into law.
0:20.0	Reagan offered remarks that included this phrase, To so many of our people,
0:23.7	are Americans of Mexican descent, are black Americans, this measure is as
0:27.8	important symbolically as it is practically. It says to every individual, your
0:32.4	vote is equal, your vote is meaningful, your vote is your constitutional right.
0:37.0	To which a lot of critics responded, yeah, you're actually right. This might be more symbolic than anything.
0:42.0	Jesse Jackson remarked,
0:43.0	we are glad we celebrate the extension of the Voting Rights Act,
0:46.0	but if it is extended and not enforced,
0:49.0	it is merely an Indian treaty,
0:51.0	referring to the many treaties that the U. on paper and then broke with Native Americans.
0:56.0	So let's talk about the extension of the Voting Rights Act, why it's happening under Ronald Reagan,
1:00.0	what enforcement of that act actually looked like from Reagan, and we can also
1:05.2	bring it up until today a little bit because one of the characters in this story, someone who
1:09.2	was trying to constrain the Voting Rights Act in 1982 is current Supreme Court Justice John Roberts.
1:16.0	He's in this story.
1:17.0	Also in this story, as always, Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson
1:20.9	of Welsley.
1:21.9	Hello, there. Hello Jody.
1:23.8	Hey there.
	...

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