Premium
“Moo U”and the 26th Amendment: Registering for Peace and Voting for Responsive City Government
Author(s) -
Brown Clyde,
Pluta Brown Gayle K.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
peace and change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1468-0130
pISSN - 0149-0508
DOI - 10.1111/j.0149-0508.2004.00283.x
Subject(s) - victory , constitution , state (computer science) , political science , counterculture , voting , voter registration , public administration , politics , government (linguistics) , law , linguistics , philosophy , algorithm , computer science
In July 1971 the 26th Amendment became part of the U.S. Constitution. As a result, over eleven million eighteen‐ to twenty‐year‐olds gained the right to vote. Among them were a group of Iowa State University students in Ames, many of them active opponents of the Vietnam War. Starting with a statewide weekend Register for Peace conference in August 1971 as part of Allard Lowenstein's “Dump Nixon” movement, they engaged in an extensive voter registration drive on campus. Motivated by perceived excesses of local political authority during the May 1970 Cambodian invasion and Kent State–Jackson State protests and mistreatment of counterculture youth, they organized a broad coalition and endorsed a slate of candidates in the November municipal election. They conducted a comprehensive voter education and get‐out‐the‐vote effort, modeled on anti‐Mayor Daley aldermanic campaigns in Chicago, which resulted in victory for their candidates and in a city government more responsive to their concerns.