J. Morgan Kousser
Professor of History and Social Science, Emeritus
Profile
Morgan Kousser (pronounced Cow' zer) is the author of The Shaping of Southern Politics: Suffrage Restriction and the Establishment of the One-Party South, 1880-1910 (Yale Univ. Press, 1974) and Colorblind Injustice: Minority Voting Rights and the Undoing of the Second Reconstruction (Univ. of NC Press, 1999), as well as 47 scholarly articles, 83 book reviews or review essays, 26 entries in encyclopedias and dictionaries, 45 papers at scholarly conventions, and 74 talks at universities. Colorblind Injustice was co-winner of the 1999 Lillian Smith Award of the Southern Regional Council and of the Ralph J. Bunche Award of the American Political Science Association. Most of his work has concerned minority voting rights, the history of education, and the legal and political aspects of race relations in the 19th and 20th centuries. From 2000 through 2012, he was the executive editor of the journal Historical Methods. He has served on the editorial boards of The Journal of American History, The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Social Science History, and Historical Methods.
Kousser has also served as an expert witness or consultant in over 60 federal or state voting rights cases, and he testified before a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives in 1981 and 2019 about the renewal of the Voting Rights Act. He was the principal expert witness on the intent issue for the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund in the Los Angeles Supervisors' redistricting case, Garza v. County of Los Angeles (1990) and for the
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- National Endowment for the Humanities Grant #R-9980-140, "Political Outputs in the South: Who Got What, When, Where, and Why?" January 1, 1974–May 31, 1975, $23,641.
- Graves Foundation Award, Summer, 1976
- Howard Foundation Fellowship, 1979–80
- National Endowment for the Humanities Grant #RO-20225-82, 1981–83, "Separate But Not Equal: A Social History of School Racial Discrimination Law in the Nineteenth Century," $74,860.
- Guggenheim Fellowship, 1985–86
- Woodrow Wilson Center Fellowship, 1985–86
- Haynes Foundation Grant, 1989–90
- Lillian Smith Award, Southern Regional Council, 1999 (co-winner)
- Ralph J. Bunche Award, American Political Science Assn., 2000 (co-winner)
- Richard P. Feynman Prize for Excellence in Teaching, Caltech, 2011
- Associated Students of Caltech Teaching Award, 1988–89, 2012–13
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Selected Publications
- McKee, Seth C.;Gillespie, Andra et al. (2020) A Discussion of Avidit Acharya, Matthew Blackwell, and Maya Sen's Deep Roots: How Slavery Still Shapes Southern PoliticsPerspectives on Politics
- Kousser, J. Morgan (2017) The Color Factor: The Economics of African-American Well-Being in the Nineteenth-Century South [Book Review]Journal of Southern History
- Kousser, J. Morgan (2016) Do the Facts of Voting Rights Support Chief Justice Roberts's Opinion in Shelby County?Transatlantica
- Kousser, J. Morgan (2014) Sharing the Prize: The Economics of the Civil Rights Revolution in the American South [Book Review]Journal of Southern History
- Kousser, J. Morgan (2013) Cumming and Giles, Meet Jenkins and Shaw: Voting Rights and Education in the Two Reconstructions
- Kousser, J. Morgan (2013) Why were you editor for 12 years?Historical Methods
- Kousser, J. Morgan (2013) Strange Career and the Need for a Second Reconstruction of the History of Race Relations
- Kousser, J. Morgan (2012) Unlocking V. O. Key Jr.: Southern Politics for the Twenty-First CenturyJournal of American History
- Kousser, J. Morgan (2010) The Immutability of Categories and the Reshaping of Southern PoliticsAnnual Review of Political Science
- Kousser, J. Morgan (2008) Professor Kousser Responds to Prof. Bickerstaff's CommentsSee Also: An Online Companion to the Texas Law Review
Working Papers
Click here to view Professor Kousser's working papers.