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Mental Disability and the Right to Vote.

dc.contributor.authorBelt, Rabia Shahinen_US
dc.date.accessioned2016-01-13T18:03:55Z
dc.date.availableNO_RESTRICTIONen_US
dc.date.available2016-01-13T18:03:55Z
dc.date.issued2015en_US
dc.date.submitted2015en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/116625
dc.description.abstractNearly forty states disfranchise people based on their mental status. Despite the patchwork of laws limiting the voting rights of people with mental disabilities, one of America’s largest minority groups, few researchers have investigated the constitutional strategy utilized for disenfranchisement or the subsequent legal challenges that arose. Through a fine-grained analysis of constitutional and legislative debates, court cases, trade documents, newspapers, and petitions, from the beginning of these suffrage restrictions to the enactment of the 19th Amendment, I describe a “common sense” disability model – the methodology behind barring people with alleged mental disabilities from the franchise. I consider how and why state legislators prohibited individuals’ right to vote based on mental capacity in state statutes and constitutions. I show that two groups –African Americans, and women – were labeled as unfit for suffrage and full political citizenship because of their assumed mental deficiencies, and how each of these groups deployed their own definitions of mental capacity as they fought for the franchise. I then examine the subsequent court and congressional challenges involving people alleged to have voted despite their being judged to lack the necessary mental capacity. I conclude by reflecting on the changed landscape of the twentieth century, as statutory provisions such as the American with Disabilities Act and the Voting Rights Act, and political movements such as the disability rights movement challenged the exclusion of the disempowered from the franchise.en_US
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.subjectDisabilityen_US
dc.subjectLawen_US
dc.subjectAfrican-American Historyen_US
dc.subjectCitizenshipen_US
dc.subjectVoting/Suffrageen_US
dc.subjectWomen's Historyen_US
dc.titleMental Disability and the Right to Vote.en_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
dc.description.thesisdegreenamePhDen_US
dc.description.thesisdegreedisciplineAmerican Cultureen_US
dc.description.thesisdegreegrantorUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studiesen_US
dc.contributor.committeememberDeloria, Philip Jen_US
dc.contributor.committeememberPernick, Martin Sen_US
dc.contributor.committeememberLassiter, Matthew Den_US
dc.contributor.committeememberScott, Rebecca Jen_US
dc.contributor.committeememberJones, Marthaen_US
dc.contributor.committeememberBlumenthal, Susannaen_US
dc.subject.hlbsecondlevelAfrican-American Studiesen_US
dc.subject.hlbsecondlevelAmerican and Canadian Studiesen_US
dc.subject.hlbsecondlevelHistory (General)en_US
dc.subject.hlbsecondlevelHumanities (General)en_US
dc.subject.hlbsecondlevelWomen's and Gender Studiesen_US
dc.subject.hlbtoplevelHumanitiesen_US
dc.description.bitstreamurlhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/116625/1/belt_1.pdf
dc.owningcollnameDissertations and Theses (Ph.D. and Master's)


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