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Robert C. Byrd Center hosting virtual ‘Evening with David Pepper, author of Laboratories of Autocracy: A Wake-Up Call from Behind the Lines’

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SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. — State governments are the place where the real battle for democracy is taking place, according to Professor David Pepper in his book Laboratories of Autocracy: A Wake Up Call from Behind the Lines.

His title comes from a telling twist in a phrase coined in 1932 by Justice Louis D. Brandeis, who called state governments “laboratories for democracy.” While news media focuses on the national government, few reporters and commentators are left to pay attention to the corruption and divisiveness in state governments that is leading toward autocracy and one-party rule.

The Robert C. Byrd Center invites you to join its book talk with Pepper, who will also update us on the recent decision of the Ohio Supreme Court that rejected that state’s redistricting plan as unconstitutional gerrymandering.

Pepper is a former chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, a former councilman for the city of Cincinnati, and professor of voting rights law at the University of Cincinnati College of Law.

Copies of Pepper’s book are available from Four Seasons Books.

There is still time to RSVP to receive a Zoom link for the virtual event! Click below or email [email protected] to register.

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