The Voting Rights Act 42

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

“I gave a little blood on that bridge in Selma, Alabama for the right to vote. I’m not going to stand by and let the Supreme Court take the right to vote away from us [African Americans]” –John Lewis. Within 100 years, African Americans overcame many obstacles such as paying poll taxes, passing multiple tests, and violence to be able to vote. They had to pay taxes, such as poll taxes. They also had to pass multiple tests, such as the Property and Literacy tests. Violence was also an obstacle African Americans had to face in order to vote.

“The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting.” In the 1880’s poll taxes and literacy requirements that afterward advocated African Americans to vote. Meanwhile Klan violence frightens from police and employers, blacks were still “protesting”about voting rights. As a result, there were over two dozen blacks serving in state congress across some

My research topic is the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and I chose this topic because I always found it amusing that it took so long for African Americans to legally be allowed to vote. I also thought this topic was appropriate since we now have an African American president, and the African Americans citizens need to know that voting I important because we didn’t always have that right.

Before the Civil War, there were no federal laws to protect voting rights. Only white males had the right to vote. In 1870, the 15th Amendment was established which stated “Specifically that the right to vote shall not be denied or abridged on the basis of race, or previous condition of servitude” (Introduction to Federal Voting Rights Laws). This amendment gives all Americans the right to be a voice of change for the people by electing officials who will make a difference in their communities. Unfortunately, one mistake can cause you to lose this right forever. As stated by Eric H. Holder, JD, US Attorney General, in his Feb. 11, 2014, speech;

The Voting Rights act of 1965 was established on August 6, 1965. This law was set to outlaw discrimination of voting practices adopted in many Southern States after the civil war, including literary test as a prerequisite to voting. The act was signed into law by former president Lyndon Johnson after a century of deliberate and violent denial of the vote to African- Americans in the South and latinos in the Southwest as well as many years of entrenched electoral systems that shut out citizens with limited fluency in english. The voting Rights act of 1965 has traced back to the 14th and 15th Amendment where it grants citizenships to all persons born in the united states including former slaves and provided all citizens with equal protection

Nearly 100 years after the 15th amendment was ratified, vast disparities and blatant discrimination in voting process and practice were still pervasive, particularly in certain southern states like Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. The 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA) was enacted by congress to address this enduring inequity. Section 5 of the VRA requires that states meeting criteria set out in section 4(b) of the act, must obtain federal “preclearance” before enacting any laws that affect voting. Section 4(b) provides the conditions for the preclearance requirement as state or jurisdictions where less than 50% of minorities were registered to vote in 1964.

Throughout America’s history the franchise has been withheld from different groups. This has been possible due to weakly written laws that do not provide adequate protections. In 1965 PL 89-110 was passed, this law, commonly known as the Voting Rights Act of 1965, finally provided real protections for minorities living in southern states. In recent years the language of the law was modified within the Supreme Court to take away the law’s primary power. In the following mock Congressional testimony we will go back to 1848, 13 years before the American Civil War, and provide evidence of why a law like PL 89-110 is necessary and commendable.

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 constitution laid the groundwork for America's citizens giving essential rights to everyone. That would have been the ideal America; Humans are flawed and there of course has to be some form of disagreement. Throughout America's existence there have been arguments, public unrest, deadly altercations and disagreements when it comes to people's rights. An instance of this can be shown through Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s campaign. He dreamed of abolishing the mentality of the south not allowing blacks to vote. Dr. King also wanted to unite people not matter their skin color. Dr. King was another activist who contributed to the Civil Rights Act being passed. Due to Dr. King's acts the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was established to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote under the 15th Amendment (1870) to the Constitution of the United States.

When our country was founded, only property-owning White men were granted the right to vote. After the Civil War, when slavery was finally abolished, the Constitution’s Fifteenth Amendment prohibited “the denial of the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Only in the last century did the Nineteenth Amendment give women the right to vote. And a little over 40 years ago, the Twenty-sixth Amendment was ratified to expand the franchise by lowering the voting age from 21 to

Congress defined "Language minority" to include "People who are American Indian, Asian American, Alaskan or of Spanish history." Congress changed/added to the end different, such as the Section 5 preclearance needed thing and Section 2 general prohibition of voting laws, to prohibit against language minorities.

Chapter 8 topics varies from voter’s perspectives, constitutional amendments, and candidate’s perspectives. This election has raised many concerns for voters who are deciding whether to vote or to not vote. Voting is a privilege just like driving, but everyone is not able to partake in this privilege due to law barriers. I learned that the fifteenth amendment outlawed race-based restriction on voting. Later the twenty-fourth amendment which passed in 1964 forbided the use of poll taxes in federal elections. This has also been applied to state election since the court passed this in 1966.

The research will examine voting rights in relation to voting right inequalities and the society’s effort to have an all minority groups included in the civic process. The research will look into several historical factors that contributed to voting rights inequalities and how the society has evolved to solve issues related to the right to vote.

Historically in America, voting has been a relatively discriminatory practice. It has limited and deprived many individuals of many diverse races, ethnicities, and walks of life from casting their votes to select the individual who they feel is most educated, and skilled to represent their interests. Not only has this been proven to be wrong by discriminating minority groups in voting, it also has proved to be a process, which minimizes the largest growing demographics in the country. Furthermore, with millennials growing to become more politically active, minority groups are becoming more politically involved than ever. Taking this into account an important question that is raised by the author William Eskridge in his book “Legislation and Statutory Interpretation” is “Would minorities be better off with more representatives who had to pay attention to their interests because they are a powerful and organized constituency, rather than with a few representatives of minority districts who specialize in protecting only their interests?” (Eskridge,Frickley,& Garrett, 2006, pp.55).