Research Seminar in Economics

November 19, HS 32

The Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965 significantly increased Black political representation in local governments across the U.S. South. However, its impact on the racial makeup of the justice system—where sheriffs, prosecutors, and judges are often elected—remains less understood. Using a newly compiled dataset of elected law enforcement officials across 11 Southern states from 1960 to 2024, we show that gains in Black representation were initially limited, even in VRA-covered counties with large Black populations. To explain this pattern, we evaluate three mechanisms: voter preferences, candidate supply, and white backlash. We find that African Americans were rarely elected to judicial and law enforcement offices, even in majority-Black counties; that the supply of qualified Black candidates did not expand significantly after the VRA; and that white voter mobilization likely dampened gains. However, our long-run analysis reveals more substantial increases in Black representation in recent years, driven by both an expanded supply of Black lawyers and law enforcement professionals and intensified recruitment and mobilization efforts by civil rights organizations following the Shelby decision and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement