The Voting Rights Act Increased Racial Economic Equality That’s Now Diminishing

The landmark piece of legislation also increased voter turnout, reveals new UC San Diego Rady School of Management research. As many state legislatures consider weakening voter protections and Congress debates new voting rights laws, recent research from the University of California San Diego's Rady School of Management reveals that the 1965 Voting Rights Act contributed to improvements of the economic status of Blacks. Conversely, after the Supreme Court rendered the Voting Rights Act ineffective in 2013, it led to economic disenfranchisement for Black families that continues to persist. "This research reveals the weakening of minority political power brought on by the 2013 Supreme Court decision made the government less responsive to minorities' policy demands," said Carlos Fernando Avenancio-León, assistant professor of finance at the Rady School of Management. Avenancio-León is co-author of two papers that together measure the effect the Voting Rights Act (VRA) had on social and economic equality after the federal legislation was passed in 1965 and until a key provision in the act was struck down by the Supreme Court's 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder. The research is the first to assess the VRA's direct impact on economic inequality. The first study, a working paper , finds counties where voting rights were more strongly protected experienced larger reductions in the Black-white wage gap between 1950 and 1980.