The Rise and Fall of the Voting Rights Act, Part I
Added 2026-01-20 09:00:09 +0000 UTCThe history of why we needed (and still need) the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
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5-4 is presented by Prologue Projects. This episode was produced by Andrew Parsons with help from Alli Rodgers and Zachary Clary. Leon Neyfakh provides editorial support. Our website was designed by Peter Murphy. Our artwork is by Teddy Blanks at Chips NY, and our theme song is by Spatial Relations. Transcriptions of each episode are available at fivefourpod.com
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Comments
disturbing episode, wonderfully inspiring finish. great work yall. cool to see via those literacy tests how being a smirking little troll who thinks theyre hot shit has been a reactionary thing for a while
Jack Wolfe
2026-01-28 21:44:30 +0000 UTCOn the topic of ICE's popularity plummeting recently, I work with 6th-12th graders and something that's been giving me a lot of hope is that apparently students at each of our city's high schools organized walk outs in protest of ICE and even created buttons and posters to hand out for it. A bunch of my kids were part of it and said that a majority of the students and teachers in each of their schools participated, and kids who couldn't because of parental retribution wore all black in solidarity. The kids are definitely alright
Orion Spencer
2026-01-22 17:07:30 +0000 UTCContra the bendy arcs of liberal imaginings, Engels had it that history zigs and zags... seems right. As Michael would put it, sometimes the zigs contain zags and the zags are littered with zigs.
David Jenkins
2026-01-22 06:03:12 +0000 UTCNew to the Patreon so that I could recommend an opening for Peter. Something like "Welcome to 5-4 where we dissect and analyze Supreme Court cases that have disappeared our civil liberties like Governor Gavin Newsome at a homeless encampment."
Eric Roberts
2026-01-21 23:00:01 +0000 UTCThank you all for this series. These days I find it rather hard to listen to / read about singular cases -- possibly related to the non-stop onslaught of one devastating thing after another in the news. Instead, it helps me feel more grounded to learn about a topic through a longer-term lens. It's good to be reminded that the struggle has been ongoing for longer than I've existed, and that any of my own measly efforts will join the work of many others before, around, and after me. Thank you for being our (non-parasocial!) friends on this journey.
Jenny
2026-01-21 22:08:20 +0000 UTCNon-American here, having lived in the US for most of my adult life: I think that there's not just one issue, but two: the first being racism, the other being capitalism. Capitalism is what motivates the land grab, westward expansion, imperialism, imported labor (including slavery), exploitation, disenfranchisement, and unequal trade relations with the global south. Racism is the channel through which the exploitation and brutality necessary for capitalism is justified - i.e. "those inferior people deserved it", etc. These twin evils evolved around one another over the last ~400 years. And I don't think it's possible to undo one without also addressing the other.
Jenny
2026-01-21 20:42:51 +0000 UTCmake 👏 literacy 👏 tests 👏 more 👏 fair -certain politicians if transported to the 1890s
Thomas Freeman
2026-01-21 17:17:07 +0000 UTCWelcome to the decay of capitalism. Fascism is upon us
Josiah Aristizabal
2026-01-21 06:06:06 +0000 UTCI had a college professor give a talk once that was something to the effect of "The US since it's founding has only ever had one real issue that underlies everything, and that issue is racism/slavery." And it's wild to me how every time I learn a little bit more about American history it just bears out that this one rotten issue has been the push and pull of all internal conflict in the US. Like, recognizing that conservatives have expanded this beyond just racism to other marginalized groups, it is still this very day the biggest fuck-up that the US seems incapable of correcting. And I don't understand why we can't just... Not marginalize people. It's so much easier, and it feels like we could accomplish so much more if we just stopped. But even this comment feels out of place in this moment in history that we're in.
Fun...
2026-01-20 23:44:06 +0000 UTCIF I’M BEING A TEXTUALIST!! I love you Rhi that was hilarious
Gavin Scouten
2026-01-20 19:04:10 +0000 UTCSilence gives consent. Unearned mercy is religious fodder.
Babaganusz
2026-01-20 18:09:00 +0000 UTCConsider this my official endorsement of Union troops occupying and reconstructing Silicon Valley
Verbose Minimalist
2026-01-20 17:01:06 +0000 UTCHave you read "Hope in the Dark" by Rebecca Solnit? She tells stories of people whose actions made world-altering changes, but they weren't able to see the effect themselves, often because the changes became visible after their lifetime. It's a really valuable read.
Emily
2026-01-20 16:24:10 +0000 UTCI’m hanging on if only by a thread Edit: it all comes back to not punishing the confederates huh?
Shugoshin
2026-01-20 16:07:51 +0000 UTCThanks Michael for that concluding thought, I am feeling slightly less sad and helpless. It occurs to me also I have no idea where on the wobbly arc I live, my actions may be significant or not, lasting or not. Still worth it.
Elaine Hall
2026-01-20 13:38:43 +0000 UTCBanger of a start to the New Year. This episode had me going through it until Michael injected some hope in there. I live in one of the most rural counties in North Carolina and the legacy of this kind of racism permeates so much of what motivates these MAGA Zombies ideology I see it everyday. Such important work you guys are doing I love you for it!
ST. Ruggle
2026-01-20 12:28:56 +0000 UTCNot to give the southern racists too much credit, but the impossible nature of "how many bubbles in a bar of soap?" makes it sound memetic. Like the answer to "How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?" Is three, or "ah thr-r-ree". Trans-Atlantic accent: "How many bubbles in a bar of soap? Well, not as many as Johnson's. Johnson's: never have your nethers been so clean."
Mountain Dew Or Crab Juice
2026-01-20 11:52:03 +0000 UTC
