Ballots, Bullets, and Blood

Item

Title: Ballots, Bullets, and Blood
Description: Following the implementation of the Voting Rights Act, organizations like the NAACP worked to register Black voters across the south and elsewhere in the country. This 1968 pamphlet was designed by the NAACP to encourage Black citizens to vote by referencing the violent history of voter suppression. White supremacists used violence and terrorism to discourage Black people from voting and organizing for the right to vote. This pamphlet tells the stories of thirteen Black and white people murdered for their activism surrounding voting rights, including Martin Luther King, Jr. The NAACP's tactic of appealing to history and readers' emotions heightens the stakes of voter registration. By portraying the ballot as something worth dying for, this pamphlet frames voting as a way to honor those slain in the struggle to secure this right.
Creator: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) See all items with this value
Publisher: Digital Commons @ University of Maryland Carey School of Law
Date: 1968 See all items with this value
Type: Pamphlet
Format: Double folded color pamphlet (two sides). Jpg file.
Language: English
Subject: Voting rights See all items with this value; Voter suppression See all items with this value; Violence See all items with this value; Civil rights movement See all items with this value; Voter registration See all items with this value; National Association for the Advancement of Colored people (NAACP) See all items with this value; King Jr., Martin Luther See all items with this value; Voting Rights Act See all items with this value
Rights Holder: NAACP materials, The Papers of Professor Larry Gibson. Thurgood Marshall Law Library, the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
Rights: Copyright may be present in the media and photograph collections. Used in accordance with the Fair Use provision of the Copyright Act

Item sets: Modern Voting Rights

Site pages: Brass Tactics: Suppressing, Protecting, and Expanding the Right to Vote

Media: 1BallotsBulletsBloodFlyer1 (1).jpg; 2BallotsBulletsBloodFlyer2.jpg