The first Latino disenfranchisement: race, ethnicity, and determining the boundaries of citizenship in the USA

Since the 2013 Shelby v. Holder decision, people of color have confronted a wave of efforts intended to limit their ability to vote. Such efforts are not new and Latinos were among their principal targets a century ago, particularly in the Southwest. My presentation explores and explains this first Latino disenfranchisement—how Latinos became citizens and the adult men among them gained the right to vote, how and why Anglos took that right from thousands of them, how some fought to regain and assert that right, and how their disenfranchisement and their struggle inform our understanding of what citizenship has meant historically in the US.

Presented by John Bezis-Selfa, Associate Professor of History. All are welcome to attend.

Thursday, October 27, 2016
12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
President’s Dining Room