The Pike Lecture featuring Professor Rabia Belt

Professor Rabia Belt will deliver the Pike Lecture, “The History of Race, Disability, and the Right to Vote” on Monday, October 30, 2023 in Barristers Hall. 

This presentation examines the historic struggle for Black voting rights and analyzes it through the lens of mental disability. White supremacist advocates used racist stereotypes to argue that mental competence was required to vote, and that Black people should not be able to vote, partly because of a lack of mental competence. Black activists pushed back against these assumptions and demonstrated Black competence. Ultimately, Black people gained the vote and legal protections to safeguard their voting rights. A collateral consequence of these debates over political citizenship reinforced the belief of mental competence as a threshold requirement for voting and a group of Americans who deserved disenfranchisement.

About the speaker:

Rabia Belt is a legal historian whose scholarship focuses on disability and citizenship. Her scholarship ranges from cultural analysis of disability in the media, to contemporary issues facing voters with disability, to the historical treatment of disabled Americans. She is currently writing a book titled, “Disabling Democracy in America: Mental Incompetence, Citizenship, Suffrage, and the Law, 1819-1920” that is forthcoming in the Studies in Legal History Series with Cambridge University Press. In 2015, the American Society of Legal History named her a Kathryn T. Preyer Scholar for her paper, “Ballots for Bullets? The Disenfranchisement of Civil War Veterans.”

Professor Belt is also an advocate for people with disabilities. In 2016, President Obama named her as a Councilmember to the National Council on Disability, the independent federal agency that advises the President, Congress, and other federal agencies regarding policies and practices that affect people with disabilities. Additionally, she served as a member of the Board of Directors for the Disability Rights Bar Association.

Boston University School of Law strives to be accessible, inclusive and diverse in our facilities, programming and academic offerings. Your experience in this event is important to us. If you have a disability (including but not limited to learning or attention, mental health, concussion, vision, mobility, hearing, physical or other health related), require communication access services for the deaf or hard of hearing, or believe that you require a reasonable accommodation for another reason, please contact lawevent@bu.edu to discuss your needs. Please note, that the office of Disability Services typically requires 10 business days notice for services.