Our time is now : power, purpose, and the fight for a fair America /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

From New York Times bestselling author of Lead From The Outside and political leader Stacey Abrams, a blueprint to end voter suppression, empower our citizens, and take back our country.

"With each page, she inspires and empowers us to create systems that reflect a world in which all voices are heard and all people believe and feel that they matter." -- Kerry Washington

A recognized expert on fair voting and civic engagement, Abrams chronicles a chilling account of how the right to vote and the principle of democracy have been and continue to be under attack. Abrams would have been the first African American woman governor, but experienced these effects firsthand, despite running the most innovative race in modern politics as the Democratic nominee in Georgia. Abrams didn't win, but she has not conceded. The book compellingly argues for the importance of robust voter protections, an elevation of identity politics, engagement in the census, and a return to moral international leadership.

Our Time Is Now draws on extensive research from national organizations and renowned scholars, as well as anecdotes from her life and others' who have fought throughout our country's history for the power to be heard. The stakes could not be higher. Here are concrete solutions and inspiration to stand up for who we are--now.

"This is a narrative that describes the urgency that compels me and millions more to push for a different American story than the one being told today. It's a story that is one part danger, one part action, and all true. It's a story about how and why we fight for our democracy and win." - Stacey Abrams

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction: Who Is Stealing America's Future? (p. 1)
• Real Access to the Right to Vote Isn't a Guarantee-And That's a Problem
• Who We Are Matters: Identity Politics and the Census
• Defeating Populism and Winning Elections to Save
• Democracy
• Chapter 1 Everything Old Is New Again (p. 17)
• Deny and Delay: The Fight for Voting Rights Never Ended
• Suppression Starts with Who Belongs Here
• A Moment's Grace: Reconstruction to a False Redemption
• A Dim Light Grows: The Rise and Fall of the Voting Rights Act
• Chapter 2 A License to Be Heard (Voter Registration) (p. 42)
• No New Voices
• No Transparency Is the Point
• You're Outta Here: Excessive Voter Purges
• Chapter 3 Getting Beyond the Gates (Access to the Ballot) (p. 70)
• The False Seduction of Voter ID
• There's No Voting at a Closed Poll
• When Voting Isn't Easy, It Can Be Impossible
• Chapter 4 When the Numbers Lie (Ballot Counting) (p. 92)
• Signatures, Rejections, Curing, Oh My!: Absentee Ballots
• How a Safety Net Became a Trap: Provisional Ballots
• Broken Infrastructure: Malfunctioning Machines, Hours-Long Lines, and Other Barriers
• Chapter 5 Taking Our Power Back (p. 116)
• Staying in the Rigged Game
• How We Begin
• Fixing the System for Good
• Chapter 6 We Can See You and So Should They (p. 141)
• Class Warfare Begins
• More Than the Sum of Our Parts
• Why Who We Are Matters
• Chapter 7 How the Census Shapes America (p. 161)
• The Significance of the United States Census
• The Census Could Save Us
• Collateral Damage: Gerrymandering
• End the Electoral College
• Chapter 8 The Playbook (p. 190)
• Reject the Myth of the Magical Voter
• Putting Our Money and Information Where Our Votes Are
• Run as You Are
• Chapter 9 Populism and the Death of Democracy (p. 221)
• Taking Power from the People
• The Rise of Authoritarian Populism as Democracy's Enemy
• Getting Our Credibility Back
• Chapter 10 The Next Best Version of America (p. 242)
• Afterword (p. 255)
• Author's Note (p. 261)
• Notes (p. 264)
• Acknowledgments (p. 273)
• Index (p. 277)
• About the Author (p. 292)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

In 2018, politician, lawyer, and author Abrams ran for governor in the state of Georgia. As a progressive Democrat, Abrams aimed to appeal to working-class Blacks, those in the LGBTQ community, and Latinx Americans. She proved successful in reaching these groups; however, she lost to Republican Brian Kemp amid charges of voter suppression through gerrymandering and irregularities in voter registration and ID requirements. In this newest work, Abrams chronicles her campaign; the history of voter suppression, especially its impact on Black communities; and the importance of voting. Through historical research and personal history, Abrams makes a compelling case for the importance of people's right to vote. She acknowledges that the system of voting in the United States is flawed and the founding of the country is problematic, if not outright hypocritical. Yet, she maintains that it is not hopeless if politicians grant and recognize the importance of those who exist on society's margins. VERDICT Insight into Abrams and her personal and political journey are the main strengths of this important book. Those not familiar with U.S. voting history will find it to be especially informative.--Leah Huey, Dekalb P.L., IL

Publishers Weekly Review

In this impassioned and carefully researched account, former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Abrams (Lead from the Outside) examines the methods and consequences of voter suppression in America and explains why she won't officially concede her 2018 race against Republican Brian Kemp. Abrams sketches the history of minority disenfranchisement from the 1857 Supreme Court decision barring African-Americans from citizenship to the 2013 voiding of federal preclearance requirements for electoral changes in districts covered under the 1965 Voting Rights Act. She also documents how the "exact match" system Kemp installed when he served as Georgia's secretary of state "led to 53,000 voter registrations being held hostage in 2018, 80 percent of whom were people of color." Voter suppression has helped fuel the recent proliferation of laws targeting abortion providers, she contends, despite a "national consensus" in favor of the right to an abortion. Abrams's reform proposals include federal laws mandating automatic registration for eligible voters, outreach to marginalized communities about the importance of the census, and national staffing and equipment standards for polling places. Blending personal history, statistical analysis, and detailed policy proposals, Abrams presents a persuasive, if wonkish, argument that any progressive legislative agenda must begin with voting reform. Liberals will be inspired. (June)

Booklist Review

When Abrams' run for the governorship of Georgia in 2018 fell short, she touted the enormous success of her campaign in increasing voter turnout and captured national attention. In her powerful new book, following Minority Leader (2018), Abrams recounts her long involvement in voter issues, including her ongoing efforts to educate and activate voters. Along the way she provides an historical perspective on the efforts of the wealthy and powerful to disenfranchise the marginalized, from Native Americans to African Americans, Hispanics, and women, with the help of laws and Supreme Court decisions that have codified disadvantage and disenfranchisement. Voter suppression tactics have changed from the brutal use of police and rabid dogs to more sophisticated and insidious methods involving provisional ballots, restrictive voter IDs, and pernicious redistricting. Abrams sees a New American Majority comprised of racial minorities and a younger population with more progressive views. She argues for the restoration of the Voting Rights Act among myriad other specific remedies, and describes voting as an act of faith, "the ultimate power" in a democracy that has been too long denied to those "who built this country from theory to life." For a nation in the throes of a pandemic and wracked by four years of polarized politics, this is an important and timely book.

Kirkus Book Review

A detailed exposé of how our democracy has been eroded--and a plan to fix it--from an up-and-coming national leader. "My parents raised the six of us in Mississippi, my mother an underpaid librarian and my father a dyslexic shipyard worker," writes Abrams, whose earliest memory of the voting process involved accompanying her parents to the polls. Her more recent memories are more bitter: In 2018, she lost the Georgia gubernatorial race to Brian Kemp in what she believes was an unfairly conducted election. "For a New American Majority--that coalition of people of color, young people, and moderate to progressive whites--to be successful, we have to stop letting them tell us who we are and how to succeed," she writes. In succinct but thorough chapters, she lays out the grim history of voting rights, both in policy and practice, from the crafting of the Constitution to the present day. The devious creativity of the techniques used to suppress votes is jaw-dropping, and Abrams provides detailed examples from around the country. Among them are obstacles to registration, voter ID "exact match" policies and other restrictions, unexpected poll closings, restriction of early and absentee voting, ballot rejection, miscounting, manipulation of provisional ballots, gerrymandering, and a broken infrastructure, including malfunctioning machines and interminable lines. The author's plan to solve the problem "short-circuits" debate about identity politics, and she clearly explains how to enact change at the federal level. The census, for example, can be "an organizing tool we can use to salvage democracy." Abrams informs readers how "democracies rarely fail today because of military coups or foreign invasion. Instead their death is gradual, coming slowly and over time with an erosion of rights and an accumulation of attacks on the institutions that form their backbone." An afterword on COVID-19 emphasizes the urgency of the 2020 election. If you are feeling hopeless about politics, this well-informed blueprint for change may begin to restore your faith. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Stacey Abrams is an author, serial entrepreneur, nonprofit CEO and political leader. After eleven years in the Georgia House of Representatives, seven as Minority Leader, Abrams became the 2018 Democratic nominee for Governor of Georgia, where she won more votes than any other Democrat in the state's history. She has founded multiple organizations devoted to voting rights, training and hiring young people of color, and tackling social issues at both the state and national levels; and she is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Abrams is the 2012 recipient of the John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award and the first black woman to become the gubernatorial nominee for a major party in the United States.