Youth Voting Rights

This book uses the history of the 26th Amendment and the ongoing fight to promote and defend youth voting rights as a prism through which to teach the history of the struggle for the fundamental right to vote in the United States. The book centers on case studies of four institutions – Tuskegee University, Prairie View A&M University, North Carolina A&T State University, and Bard College – which offer unique insights into the role of college communities in the fight for suffrage, and their contributions to the evolution of the right to vote.

• Takes a contemporary look at the importance of the youth vote.
• Offers unique insights into the role of college communities, including HBCUs, in the fight for suffrage.
• Teaches evolution of the right to vote.

Jonathan Becker is Professor of Political Studies, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Director of the Center for Civic Engagement at Bard College.

 Yael Bromberg is a constitutional rights and voting rights litigator and leading legal scholar of the 26^th Amendment. She teaches democracy law at American University Washington College of Law.

"Generations of young Americans, from Freedom Summer in 1964 to the passage of the 26^th Amendment in 1971 to the college campus struggles happening today during the Trump period, have been on the front lines of the fight to vote. This book is a stirring analysis of this important history and a powerful call to action."

– Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Committee on the Judiciary and author, We the Students: Supreme Court Decisions for and about Students

"At a moment of democratic peril, this desperately needed book arrives on the eve of the 250^th anniversary of America’s founding—with promising insight and powerful analysis of young voters and the youth vote. If America is to celebrate future anniversaries as a democracy, it will be because we heed the rich scholarship, practical lessons, trenchant case studies, and inspired wisdom inscribed on these pages."

– Cornell William Brooks, Professor, Harvard Kennedy School, 18^th President & CEO, NAACP

"This book is an essential look at the hard-fought and hard-won voting rights victories of young Americans. College students and young people have always been at the forefront of change in America. It’s no wonder anti-democratic forces are cracking down on university campuses—where organizing, protest, and youth-led movements are born."

– David Hogg, President, Leaders We Deserve; Co-founder, March For Our Lives

"The struggle to secure the right to vote for college students and young people did not end with the passage of the 26^th Amendment in 1971. Youth Voting Rights shows with passion and detail that community organizing, savvy legal strategy, and perseverance are necessary to secure the promise of equal voting for young and old and for black, brown, and white."

– Richard L. Hasen, UCLA Professor and author, A Real Right to Vote

"This is an exceptionally important book on the too-often dismissed problem of voter suppression laws aimed at young voters. I highly recommend."

– Marc E. Elias, Partner, Elias Law Group LLP and Founder, Democracy Docket

"When colleges, students, and the broader community have organized, they have won victories and made great progress. This book shows you how that happened in the past, with important lessons for the present and future."

– Heather Booth, Founder, Midwest Academy, and 1964 Freedom Summer volunteer

"This must-read book explains in great clarity why this work is so important in this moment and time. I have worked closely with Jonathan Becker and Yael Bromberg upholding the promise of the 26^th Amendment, which was supposed to bring equal access to the ballot box for young voters in America."

– David Goodman, Board Member of the Andrew Goodman Foundation, and brother of Andrew Goodman, Student Civil Rights worker murdered in Mississippi, 1964

"In this vitally important, original, and timely book, legal scholars and voting rights advocates Becker and Bromberg present a compelling, collaborative picture of the history, litigation, and future of youth voting rights and the 26^th Amendment. The innovative emphasis on the role of students, faculty, and institutions of higher education, particularly HBCUs, provides new historical insights and new practical ideas to protect and defend the voting rights of young Americans in our democracy."

– Jennifer Frost, University of Auckland, and author, "Let Us Vote!": Youth Voting Rights and the 26th Amendment

"A compelling example of students and institutions working together to protect voting rights. An inspiring resource for anyone advancing civic engagement and access to the ballot."

– Bobbie Laur, President, Campus Compact

"College and university campuses are essential and powerful sites for democracy that ensure students graduate with the knowledge, skills, and experiences necessary for informed participation and leadership in our communities—from our town halls to the ballot box. This book describes how higher education institutions have served to shape voting rights jurisprudence and continue to work toward a democracy that includes the voices of college students and others who face systemic barriers to participation."

– Jennifer M. Domagal-Goldman, Executive Director, ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge