Mental Disability and the Right to Vote.
dc.contributor.author | Belt, Rabia Shahin | en_US |
dc.date.accessioned | 2016-01-13T18:03:55Z | |
dc.date.available | NO_RESTRICTION | en_US |
dc.date.available | 2016-01-13T18:03:55Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2015 | en_US |
dc.date.submitted | 2015 | en_US |
dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/116625 | |
dc.description.abstract | Nearly 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.iso | en_US | en_US |
dc.subject | Disability | en_US |
dc.subject | Law | en_US |
dc.subject | African-American History | en_US |
dc.subject | Citizenship | en_US |
dc.subject | Voting/Suffrage | en_US |
dc.subject | Women's History | en_US |
dc.title | Mental Disability and the Right to Vote. | en_US |
dc.type | Thesis | en_US |
dc.description.thesisdegreename | PhD | en_US |
dc.description.thesisdegreediscipline | American Culture | en_US |
dc.description.thesisdegreegrantor | University of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies | en_US |
dc.contributor.committeemember | Deloria, Philip J | en_US |
dc.contributor.committeemember | Pernick, Martin S | en_US |
dc.contributor.committeemember | Lassiter, Matthew D | en_US |
dc.contributor.committeemember | Scott, Rebecca J | en_US |
dc.contributor.committeemember | Jones, Martha | en_US |
dc.contributor.committeemember | Blumenthal, Susanna | en_US |
dc.subject.hlbsecondlevel | African-American Studies | en_US |
dc.subject.hlbsecondlevel | American and Canadian Studies | en_US |
dc.subject.hlbsecondlevel | History (General) | en_US |
dc.subject.hlbsecondlevel | Humanities (General) | en_US |
dc.subject.hlbsecondlevel | Women's and Gender Studies | en_US |
dc.subject.hlbtoplevel | Humanities | en_US |
dc.description.bitstreamurl | http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/116625/1/belt_1.pdf | |
dc.owningcollname | Dissertations and Theses (Ph.D. and Master's) |
Files in this item
Remediation of Harmful Language
The University of Michigan Library aims to describe library materials in a way that respects the people and communities who create, use, and are represented in our collections. Report harmful or offensive language in catalog records, finding aids, or elsewhere in our collections anonymously through our metadata feedback form. More information at Remediation of Harmful Language.
Accessibility
If you are unable to use this file in its current format, please select the Contact Us link and we can modify it to make it more accessible to you.