The story of an extraordinary
expansion of voting rights and the obstacles holding back its implementation

When
Florida citizens voted in 2018 to pass Amendment 4 to the state constitution, which
promised to restore voting rights to people with past felony convictions, the
decision was celebrated as a civil rights victory and the nation's largest
expansion of voting rights in almost 50 years. In Just Freedom, Daniel
Rivero details the advocacy and action that led to this moment--and shows what
went wrong in the years after the amendment's passing.

The
story begins in the Reconstruction era with Florida's 1868 lifetime voting ban
for people with past felony convictions. The infamous 2000 Bush/Gore election
brought the ban to national attention, sparking a wave of activism against it. Rivero
follows the 18-year path to Amendment 4 through the grassroots work of people
including Howard Simon of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida and
Desmond Meade, a formerly incarcerated man and president of the Florida Rights
Restoration Coalition.

A
journalist who has covered this story for many years, Rivero uses court
documents, meeting transcripts, archival videos, interviews, and eyewitness courtroom
scenes and street marches to peel back the layers and reveal the motives that supported
and opposed this human rights initiative. He shows how political polarization,
implementation challenges, and monetary interests have stalled the amendment
from becoming fully realized to this day.

At
once a contemporary legal tale and a series of interwoven stories of people at
the center of the fight, this is the account of how 1.4 million Floridians gained
the right to vote--and the obstacles still preventing them from doing so. Just
Freedom will raise questions and provoke conversations about the lasting
hold of Jim Crow-era policies, the power of money, and the nature of the
American criminal justice system.

A
volume in the series Government and Politics in the South, edited by Sharon D.
Wright Austin and Angela K. Lewis-Maddox

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Published: 10/07/2025
ISBN: 9780813081168
Pages: 216
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 8.60h x 5.80w x 0.50d

Review Citations: Library Journal 08/22/2025 pg. 1