DOI: 10.3886/icpsr06646.v1
title: Quiet Revolution in the South: the Impact of the Voting Rights Act, 1965-1990 [Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia]
title: Version 1

description: The purpose of this study was to examine the causes of gains
in Black office-holding in the South over the past two decades,
including effects of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 on changes in local city
election structure, the enfranchisement of Blacks in the South, and the
prevention of the dilution of minority votes in terms of enabling
Blacks to win local office. The data are longitudinal, gathered at two
points in time at the city level. The collection includes eight
state-specific data files that contain variables such as type of
election system in use at each time period (at-large, single-member
district, or mixed), total number of Black council members at each
of two time points for each city, total number of council members, 1980
Census city total population, 1980 Census Black city population, and
voting age population. Also included is "Table Z," a set of
state-specific supplementary tables listing all lawsuits filed between
1965 and 1989 under the Fourteenth Amendment, the Fifteenth Amendment,
or the Voting Rights Act by private plaintiffs or the Justice
Department that challenged at-large elections in municipalities in all
eight of the southern states covered in this study, and in counties in Alabama,
Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.
description: Data were collected at two points in time separated on average by 
 about 15 years. The earlier time point was 1974 for all states except 
 Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia. For Alabama the earlier 
 time point was 1970, for North Carolina, 1973, for Virginia, 1977, and for 
 Georgia, 1980. The later time point was 1989 for all states except Georgia, 
 for which it was 1990. In all but two of the states, only cities with a 
 Black population of 10 percent or more were examined. Exceptions were 
 Texas, where a combined Black and Hispanic population of 10 percent was 
 the threshold, and North Carolina, where a combined Black and American 
 Indian population threshold of 10 percent was used. Data were collected 
 in each state for cities over a certain size, using 1980 United States Census 
 figures. The population threshold was 1,000 in Mississippi, 2,500 in 
 Louisiana, 6,000 in Alabama, and 10,000 in Georgia, Texas, and South 
 Carolina. In North Carolina all incorporated cities were examined, 
 including cities with a population of less than 500. The Virginia data 
 include all cities that are "independent," and, as a result, cities with
as few as 4,840 inhabitants are included.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Alabama Data
DS2: Georgia Data
DS3: Louisiana Data
DS4: Mississippi Data
DS5: North Carolina Data (All Cities)
DS6: North Carolina Data (Cities of 10,000 Population or More)
DS7: South Carolina Data
DS8: Texas Data
DS9: Virginia Data
DS10: Table 2.Z, Challenges to At-Large Elections, 1966-1989, Alabama Municipalities and Counties (ASCII Text)
DS11: Table 3.Z-A, Cases Challenging At-Large County Elections, Georgia, 1974-1990 (ASCII Text)
DS12: Table 3.Z, Cases Challenging At-Large City Elections, Georgia, 1974-1990 (ASCII Text)
DS13: Table 4.Z, Challenges to At-Large and Multimember Districts, Louisiana Municipalities, 1971-1989 (ASCII Text)
DS14: Table 5.Z, Lawsuits Challenging At-Large City Council Elections, Mississippi Municipalities, 1965-1989 (ASCII Text)
DS15: Table 6.Z-A, Challenges to At-Large Elections Between 1973 and 1989, North Carolina Counties (ASCII Text)
DS16: Table 6.Z, Challenges to At-Large Elections Between 1973 and 1989, North Carolina Cities (ASCII Text)
DS17: Table 7.Z-A, Challenges to At-Large Elections, South Carolina Local Government (Cities and Counties), 1969-1989 (ASCII Text)
DS18: Table 8.Z, Challenges to At-Large Elections Between 1968 and 1989, Texas Cities (ASCII Text)
DS19: Table 9.Z, Challenges to At-Large Elections Between 1973 and 1990, Virginia Independent Cities and Counties (ASCII Text)
DS20: Table 2.Z, Challenges to At-Large Elections, 1966-1989, Alabama Municipalities and Counties (Rich Text Format)
DS21: Table 3.Z-A, Cases Challenging At-Large County Elections, Georgia, 1974-1990 (Rich Text Format)
DS22: Table 3.Z, Cases Challenging At-Large City Elections, Georgia, 1974-1990 (Rich Text Format)
DS23: Table 4.Z, Challenges to At-Large and Multimember Districts, Louisiana Municipalities, 1971-1989 (Rich Text Format)
DS24: Table 5.Z, Lawsuits Challenging At-Large City Council Elections, Mississippi Municipalities, 1965-1989 (Rich Text Format)
DS25: Table 6.Z-A, Challenges to At-Large Elections Between 1973 and 1989, North Carolina Counties (Rich Text Format)
DS26: Table 6.Z, Challenges to At-Large Elections Between 1973 and 1989, North Carolina Cities (Rich Text Format)
DS27: Table 7.Z, Challenges to At-Large Elections, South Carolina Local Government (Cities and Counties), 1969-1989 (Rich Text Format)
DS28: Table 8.Z, Challenges to At-Large Elections Between 1968 and 1989, Texas Cities (Rich Text Format)
DS29: Table 9.Z, Challenges to At-Large Elections Between 1973 and 1990, Virginia Independent Cities and Counties (Rich Text Format)
description: Cities and counties in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana,
Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia.
description: The data files in Parts 1-9 are comma-delimited and are
intended to be read by a spreadsheet program. They have, as the first
line, a row of variable names. The remainder of each data file is one
record per case. The files of Table Z are provided
as ASCII text files (Parts 10-19) and as Rich Text Format (RTF) files in Parts 20-29, suitable for
importation into a word processor program.