Civil Rights Movement In The 1960s

Soon after passage of the Voting Rights Act, federal examiners were conducting voter registration, and black voter registration began a sharp increase. The cumulative effect of the Supreme Court’s decisions, Congress’ enactment of voting rights legislation, and the ongoing efforts of concerned private citizens and the Department of Justice, has been to restore the right to vote guaranteed by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. The Voting Rights Act itself has been called the single most effective piece of civil rights legislation ever passed by

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibits voting discrimination. With the condition to receive preclearance stated in section 5 of the Act from the Department of Justice before making any changes affecting the voting process, also came four other prohibitions. The prohibition of literacy test or other similar test or devices as a prerequisite to voter registration is one prevention. The requirement of jurisdictions with significant language minority populations to provide non-English ballots and oral voting instructions is another. Third is the prohibition of vote dilution, which is the remapping of districts to suppress the minority vote. The final provision was one of the most controversial of the Act. It established the federal oversight

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 signed into law by President Lyndon B Johnson, this was to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented Africans-Americans from voting under the fifteenth amendment. The VRA gave African-Americans the right to vote and stating that people are not allowed to do anything to the people of different color or race while they are trying to vote, or forcing them to not vote. The fifteenth amendment was to prohibit states from denying a male citizen the right to vote based on race, or color; Still people who do not agree with this were trying to prevent African-Americans from voting.

The Selma to Montgomery March influenced Lyndon B. Johnson to pass the Voting Rights Act to gain the voting equality in the South.

In the 1869, congress passes the 15th amendment giving African American men the right to vote. Then in 1964 poll taxes where banned when it was adopted into the 24th amendment. Through all of this there were still many minorities left out of the loop, even though these laws and amendments where passed they truly weren’t put into place in individual states for a while. In 1965 many people marched and fought for the civil rights of many people. One of those famous marches was the march of Selma that included the famous MLK Jr. Later that year, President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the ‘Voting Rights Act’ into law. The Voting Rights Act consisted of permanently removing all barriers that detained many minorities from participating in elections and casting their votes by prohibiting racial/ethnic discrimination at all

March 7, 1965 about 600 people arrived in downtown Selma, Alabama to walk in the famous march known as Bloody Sunday. The civil rights leaders organized this march because of the blocking of black peoples’ votes. This march wanted to call attention and stress the denial of black’s constitutional right to vote. There were many places that blacks were not allowed to vote, including Mississippi, Alabama, and Dallas, all places that black people had the highest percentage of the population. Before the march, doctors were telling the protesters how to react when there is violence. The protesters were aware that there could be tear gas, clubs, cattle prods, bombs, snipers and even more. Because of the recent death threats, Dr. King was not

These marches had a big impact on African Americans living the United States. Because of the Selma marches, LBJ signed the Voting Rights Act in 1965. This was an important milestone for African Americans getting equal rights. New citizens of the United States can learn that many African

Johnson. He was instrumental in getting black voting rights passed in the United States by putting forth the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He “considered the Voting Rights Act his greatest legislative achievement” (Califano, Selma Flaw). LBJ was crucial to getting voting rights that were of utmost importance to blacks at the time. Another key figure in Selma was obviously Martin Luther King, Jr. He was integral in the push for black rights, leading many different non-violent protests in order to secure rights for all blacks. Before the events in Selma, King led the blacks on the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which was successful in removing the segregated bus lines. MLK was crucial in acquiring black rights, but in Selma he was crucial to rallying the people and leading them. Another key figure was the youngest of the major civil rights leaders of that time. This was John Lewis, who was the chairman of the unsuccessful SNCC group in Selma. He was one of the few spearheading the march to Montgomery. He was seen being beaten, which was reported in the news, causing the black rights movement to get

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 which led to the ban on segregation in southern states such as in Albany, Georgia, Birmingham and Selma, Alabama has passed and early in 1965 African Americans were protesting against voting rights registration. Martin Luther King Jr. plans to coordinate a mass protest against voter registration drive which will secure voting rights for African Americans. Jim Bevel was a member in SCLC which suggested that the campaign should take place in Selma, Alabama, where an unsuccessful voter registration drive had been going on for months. In February 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. with other SCLC members visited Selma and led a match to protest in the Courthouse against voter registration. People protests in Selma which

In 1973 Congress amended the Voting Rights Act and extended protections to members of “languages minorities.” The new language minorities’ classification meant that the act’s protection now extended to voters non-English speaking minorities. These classifications included those who spoke Spanish, Native American languages, Native Alaskan languages, and Asian languages. Some of the changes to the new amendment within the Voting Rights Act prohibited literacy tests as a requirement for voter registration. It also required jurisdictions with large minority language speaking populations to have non-English speaking ballots as well as oral voting instructions that conformed to the language minorities within their districts. Additionally, the new amendments to the Voting Rights Act also protected minorities from voter dilution (the nullification of minority group votes through a

The main contemporary federal policy that will be examined is the amendments that have been made to the voting acts which empowered states to decide and make judgments on who is eligible to vote. The research will look into how this undermines the rights to vote in our modern society. In particular, the research will focus on the amendment made on the 1965 voting rights act that internationally defined eligibility of a voter with the inclusion of minority groups. A ruling made by the Supreme Court in 2013 gave power to states to determine and register eligible voters. This in my opinion, and from data collected from different articles gave states a chance to create more restrictions on voting rights. Social welfare associations think that beneficiaries of such laws have created a status quo which results in discrimination. The research will look at the impact of such contemporary policies and examine its effect on voting rights and societal perception of inequality.

There were two aspects of the Voting Rights Act discussed in the presentation. The first was the abolition of the literacy test. The literacy test was administered to a voter by a registrar. The registrar had the voter read and explain any part of the state’s constitution that he chose. If the results were unsatisfactory, then they were not able to vote. This resulted in the registrars being impartial and people who they did not like were guaranteed to fail.

The Constitution gave each state the right to determine its own voting laws (May 50). This privilege has been amended to ensure that minorities, and other groups who would be otherwise left out of the voting process, are not prevented from voting in federal and state elections. The most prominent piece of legislation ensuring equal treatment of all citizens at the voting booth is the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Amended many times since its initial adoption, the Act is generally considered the most successful piece of civil rights legislation ever adopted by the United States Congress, but the relevance of this bill written more than 50 years ago has come into question in recent years (Introduction to Federal Voting Rights Laws).

The voting rights act was basically a way to establish equality within ethnicity it was a way to stop discrimination for voters who were of different ethnicity. Act's Sections 2 and 5, arguably its most important parts. In section 2 of the voting rights act it states that no one can try to decrease minority votes by excluding them in the district grouping. Section 5 of the act puts a limit on the states that try to enforce a system that can possibly have a restriction of voting towards minority’s that way it would also prevent discrimination. In Texas it is set that all people are accounted for no matter what. As long as they live in the area they are taken account for even non- citizens are also taken account that’s what the voting rights act of 1965 led to down in Texas besides the fact that it included the ethnicity it also included

As a matter of fact, on March 7, 1965, began the Selma Protest, it was a protest consisting of 600 colored people to demand fairness in voter registration. Discrimination and