Why the Vote Wasn’t Enough for Selma

“Karlyn Forner’s valuable and informative Why the Vote Wasn’t Enough for Selma provides with great depth much-needed context for a struggle that is too often reduced to a 1965 protest march, and raises with great relevance for today the often-avoided issue of the undone work necessary to secure meaningful change. This is much more than a book about Alabama's civil rights struggle. Read it and learn.” - Charles E. Cobb Jr., author of This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible

"Although scholars have explored questions of voting rights and economic justice for black residents of Selma, Karlyn Forner's study provides new details and fresh insights into the evolution, impact, and legacy of the fight for voting rights. Sure to appeal to a wide audience, Why the Vote Wasn’t Enough for Selma is truly exceptional in terms of its breadth, depth, vision, and scope." - Hasan Kwame Jeffries, author of Bloody Lowndes: Civil Rights and Black Power in Alabama’s Black Belt

"Though the general contours of this story are well known, Forner presents an exhaustive social, political, and economic history of Selma set within local and national context. A near page-turner that will appeal to both general and scholarly readers interested in the civil rights movement." - William D. Pederson, Library Journal

"Forner argues convincingly that, for many black residents, 'Selma did more for civil rights than civil rights did for Selma.' This lucid, detailed book is often dispiriting to read, but it’s an important reminder of the still-unfulfilled promise of the black freedom movement." (Starred Review) - Publishers Weekly

"With sheer ambition and narrative deftness, Karlyn Forner sets a new standard for deeper explorations of U.S. history. By plumbing Selma’s past—not over the customary two months in 1965, but over more than a century—Forner gives us a 'civil rights movement' that is longer and broader than we ever knew. Deeply researched, brilliantly framed, and fearlessly candid, this is that rare history that also speaks loudly in the present tense.” - Timothy B. Tyson, author of The Blood of Emmett Till

"This vision of Alabama history is depressing, even tragic, but it can help to reinvigorate our thinking about racial justice in the future. Forner persuasively demonstrates that the economic plight of many black Americans is the direct result of years of racist policies, global labor changes, and a federal government refusing to protect its citizens. Her book reminds us that anything less than a total and complete commitment from the federal government to end institutionalized racism simply leaves in place some problems of the past and enables new and different forms of dispossession to take root." - Elias Rodriques, The Nation

"Elegantly written, Karlyn Forner's community study offers college instructors an excellent option for undergraduate courses...[and] highlights the strengths of integrating social, economic, and political history around a single community." - William D. Goldsmith, Journal of the North Carolina Association of Historians