The Voting Rights Act Of 1965

Most change can be caused by people or something with significant value. Occasionally people forget that change can also be caused by pieces of paper. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was a law passed that primarily gave African Americans the right to vote without having to take any sort of literacy tests. African Americans were widely ignored in voting rights because they were forced to take literacy tests to be eligible to vote. Having this event in our nation’s civil rights movement was a landmark that allowed the other half of our nation’s voice to be heard. “The Voting Rights Act itself has been called the single most effective piece of civil rights legislation ever passed by Congress.”(Laney 65)

Despite what many might think, the voting rights act of 1965 is well known across hundreds of nations all over the world. The voting rights act of 1965 has been around for several centuries and has a very important meaning in the lives of many. This act was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on August 6, 1965. He aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote under the 15th amendment to the Constitution of the United States. It is a landmark piece of federal legislation that prohibits this racial discrimination. This document is just as big and important as the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. It would be safe to assume that voting rights act of 1965 is going to be around for a long time and will have an enormous impact on the lives of many people in times to come. The voting acts of 1965 created positive and negative changes for America. But, why was this law created, when was it put into effect, and what effect did it have on the U.S.?

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

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

I cannot agree with you more Inez. “It is hard to believe that in 2017 we are still having the discussion as to whether or not every American has equal access to be able to vote.” How is this still an issue?

After the Civil War, the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendment were added to our constitution in order to protect the civil rights of Americans. The thirteenth amendment ended slavery. The fourteenth tells us that all persons born here are natural citizens, as well as states the rights and protection of both citizens and non-citizens under the law. The fifteenth amendment protects a citizen’s right to vote. These were reinforced by the civil rights acts between 1865 and 1875. These acts allowed the President to enforce these acts with armed forces, criminal penalties to those who would interfere with the right to vote or any of these other rights, and penalties to those who would deny equal enjoyment to public accommodations. Unfortunately, many civil rights court cases, and barriers were put in place to undermine the legislation these amendments and acts were meant to create and the rights they were made to protect. This changed in 1954 when Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka stated that segregation of schools violates the equal protection act of the fourteenth amendment. This eventually led to several other civil rights movements during the 1950s and 60s. By this time, Congress was finally compelled to pass legislation to support the civil rights movement. This included the Civil rights act of 1964, which banned discrimination on the bases of color, race, religion, gender, and national origin. The Voting act of 1965, which outlawed tests discriminatory tests

The most transformative piece of legislation relating to a minority culture group in America is the Voting Rights Act of 1965, also known as the VRA. This piece of legislation has nearly 150 years of history to prove that its affect on minorities, mainly African Americans, has had a major impact on American civil rights and is still in the spotlight today. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on August 6, 1965, and was designed to overcome legal barriers at both the state and local levels of government that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote. (“Voting Rights Act of 1965”) The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution ratified on February 3, 1870 granted African American men the right to vote declaring that the “right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” (Primary Documents…) Sadly, the promise of the 15th Amendment was not realized for nearly a century because of government use of poll taxes, literacy tests and other means used by the Southern states to disenfranchise African Americans. The passing of the VRA helped completely change history giving African American citizens a voice.

What is The Voting Rights Act of 1966? The voting rights act is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the law on august 6, 1965. This law was designed to enforce the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments, the act secure voting rights for ethic groups mostly in the south. The U.S Department of Justice expresses that this Act is the most effective piece of federal civil rights legislation ever enacted in the country. The Act contains various provisions that control election administration. The Act’s “general provision” provides nationwide protection on voting rights. Section 2 is a general Provision that forbids each state and local government

The history of “gerrymandering” started during the term of Elbridge Gerry, the Governor of Massachusetts, when he approved an obscure redistricting plan ahead of the 1812 elections that helped Republicans hold on to power in the legislature. One of the redistricted districts that primarily consisted of a one party defendant was shaped as a salamander, which later gave rise to this political term (Keck, 2010). The term relates to the drawing of the boundaries of electoral districts in a way that gives one party an unfair advantage over its rivals, which gives rise to the disproportionate representation of Democratic and Republican parties (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2013). Historically, both parties have used this form of redistricting to

States have utilized their discretion over the time, place, and manner to alienate large segments of the voting population in the pass. From the Jim Crow era literacy tests and poll taxes, to modern-day voter ID laws, representatives have attempted to disenfranchise voters at every turn. Thought the Voting Rights Act of 1965 would have ideally rid America of these obstacles by this point, vestiges of the manipulation remain. The passage of years has brought a large degree of uniformity to election laws. For example, all states except Louisiana permit election by plurality in general elections. But several key distinctions prevail, and the desire for federalism here has created issues with suffrage. Voter ID laws are perhaps the most visible

The Act made a big change. For example, in 1960 in Mississippi, only five percent of eligible blacks voted. The Act allowed more blacks to vote, 25000 African Americans registered in 1965 and this number has been increasing over 50% in 1967.

Another legislation put forward was in 1960 when Kennedy won the election, he put forward a controversial notion of a Civil Rights Act; he had showed support in previous years when he supported the Freedom Riders in 1961. But President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 so he could not pass the Act until his successor; Vice President Lyndon Johnson approved the Bill in July next year. The Act marked a defining moment in the struggle for Civil Rights; it outlawed segregation in all areas. In Source A we can see the combined partnership of Johnson and Kennedy, they offered a mixed bag of experience and charisma, which gave a great deal of diversity to American politics, who in the past rarely did anything to do with Civil rights; their policies gained millions of votes from anti-discriminates.

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 civil rights movement was a struggle that southern blacks went through to fight for equality and the same civil rights as white people. In the years 1960-1965, their lives were filled with segregation and discrimination. They had many goals to achieve, but their right to vote was the biggest of all. Southern blacks voting rights were important in this time period because it did not follow the 15th amendment which was that “the right of citizens of the United States vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude” as seen in the article African Americans and the 15th Amendment. This movement's goal was for general equality yet “local municipalities continued to use tactics such as poll taxes, literacy tests and outright intimidation to stop people from casting free and unfettered ballots”naacp.org”