Franita Tolson
USC Gould School of Law Vice Dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs, and Professor of Law
Helping Democracy Achieve Its Potential
On July 27, 2021, USC Gould Law Vice Dean Franita Tolson testified before Congress and reported on the history of voter suppression, vote dilution, and disenfranchisement, in the history of the U.S.
Professor Tolson is an election law expert so the U.S. House Committee on House Administration called her to testify on elections issues.
An earlier invitation to testify had come in 2019 when House Democrats were trying to advance two bills - H.R. 1 and H.R. 4.
She explained the importance of why governments need to actively work to overcome laws, policies, and practices that suppress voters' capacities to cast a meaningful vote:
"Other times such targeting occurred behind the required payment of property taxes, poll taxes, literacy tests, or convictions for a felony. What is significant about these efforts is they were in almost every instance enacted by efforts designed to maintain groups in power by excluding others."
"This history can also be used to understand that current efforts that lead to voter suppression build, and often replicate, what has been done in the nation’s past. One can say that historical legacy may, in fact, not be a legacy of the past, but rather a current manifestation of that past legacy."
She also emphasized the importance of rewriting Elections Clause of Article I, Section 4 of the Constitution and how that will work to enhance to enhance the likelihood that all voters will have an equal chance to vote and to cast a meaningful vote.
"Without a clear, strong, commitment on the part of the federal government, one cannot depend on state and local jurisdictions to protect the voting rights of racial, ethnic, language minority, and other historically marginalized voters," she noted.
Tolson has been working on her forthcoming book, In Congress We Trust? Enforcing Voting Rights from the Founding to the Jim Crow Era set for release in late 2022, just in time for the mid-terms as well as a 28-episode podcast series “Free & Fair with Franita and Foley.”
On July 27, 2021, USC Gould Law Vice Dean Franita Tolson testified before Congress and reported on the history of voter suppression, vote dilution, and disenfranchisement, in the history of the U.S.