Joseph Morgan Kousser (born October 7, 1943 in

Lewisburg, Tennessee Lewisburg is a city in, and the county seat of Marshall County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 12,288 in 2020. Lewisburg is located in Middle Tennessee, fifty miles south of Nashville and fifty-two miles north of Huntsville, Alabam ...

) is an American

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

. He is a professor of

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

and

social sciences Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soci ...

at the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

Early life

Kousser was born on October 7, 1943 in

. He graduated from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

with an A.B. in history in 1965 after completing a senior thesis titled "Tennessee Politics and the Negro, 1948-1964." He then received a Ph.D. in political science from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

in 1971 after completing a 492-page long doctoral dissertation titled "The Shaping of Southern Politics: Suffrage Restriction and the Establishment of the One-Party South, 1880-1910" under the supervision of C. Vann Woodward.

Career

Kousser joined the California Institute of Technology in 1971, where he is professor of

and

. He was a visiting professor at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1981, and he was the

Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professor of American History The Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professorship is an endowed chair in American history at the University of Oxford, tenable for one year. The Harmsworth Professorship was established by Harold Sidney Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere (1868–194 ...

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

from 1984 to 1985. One of Kousser's primary fields of expertise is the current and historical interaction of

race Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...

and

voting rights Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. He has served as an

expert witness An expert witness, particularly in common law countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States, is a person whose opinion by virtue of education, training, certification, skills or experience, is accepted by the judge as ...

in over thirty-five federal or state voting rights cases, including '' Garza v. County of Los Angeles'' (1990), '' United States v. Memphis'' (1991), '' Shaw v. Hunt'' (1994), '' Cano v. Davis'' (2002) and Perry v. Perez (2013). Kousser was the editor of the journal ''Historical Methods'' from 2000 to 2013. He is the author of ''The Shaping of Southern Politics: Suffrage Restriction and the Establishment of the One-Party South, 1880-1910'' (1974), and ''Colorblind Injustice: Minority Voting Rights and the Undoing of the Second Reconstruction'' (1999).

Works

* ''Do the Facts of Voting Rights Support Chief Justice Roberts's Opinion in Shelby County?'' (October 1, 2014)
read online
* ''Colorblind Injustice: Minority Voting Rights and the Undoing of the Second Reconstruction'' (

University of North Carolina Press The University of North Carolina Press (or UNC Press), founded in 1922, is a university press that is part of the University of North Carolina. It was the first university press founded in the Southern United States. It is a member of the Ass ...

, 1999)
read online
* ''How to Determine Intent: Lessons from L.A.'' (1990

* ''Dead End: The Development of Litigation on Racial Discrimination in Schools in 19th Century America'' (Fair Lawn, N.J.:

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 1986). (The Development of Nineteenth-century Litigation on Racial Discrimination in Schools : an Inaugural Lecture Delivered Before the University of Oxford on 28 February 1985
read online
* ''Region, Race, and Reconstruction: Essays in Honor of C. Vann Woodward'' (New York:

, 1982), co-edited with

James M. McPherson James Munro McPherson (born October 11, 1936) is an American Civil War historian, and is the George Henry Davis '86 Professor Emeritus of United States History at Princeton University. He received the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for '' Battle Cry of ...

read online
* ''The Shaping of Southern Politics: Suffrage Restriction and the Establishment of the One-Party South, 1880-1910'' (

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Universi ...

, 1974; Paperback, 1976)
Amazon.com

References

External links

J. Morgan Kousser
at the California Institute of Technology {{DEFAULTSORT:Kousser, J. Morgan Living people Historians of the United States History of voting rights in the United States 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers Princeton University alumni Yale University alumni Harvard University staff California Institute of Technology faculty 1943 births Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professors of American History People from Lewisburg, Tennessee American male non-fiction writers

Early life

Career

Works

See also

References

External links