Dr. Carol Anderson, Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies and Associated Faculty in the History Department, was quoted in the recent USA Today article “Before John Lewis, was the bold life and unjust death of Maceo Snipes.” Snipes was the only Black person to vote in the Democratic primary in Taylor County, Georgia, in 1946. The day following, white men arrived at Snipes’s home and shot him. He died two days later. Read more about Snipes’ life, murder, and influence on the website of The Georgia Civil Right Cold Cases Project, based at Emory. Also read the excerpt from the USA Today article quoting Anderson, who is an expert on issues of voter suppression and author of One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy, below.

Professor Carol Anderson, chair of African American studies at Atlanta’s Emory University and author of the recently acclaimed book “One Person, No Vote,” said that Snipes essentially signed his death warrant by voting.