Voting Rights Act Of 1965 Research Paper

This document had finally been introduced in 1965 but prior to all that, segregation and racial discrimination continued all throughout. The Voting Rights Act, presented in 1965 and extended in 1970, 1975, and 1982, is commonly measured to be the most effective piece of civil rights by the United States Congress. The act arranges the 15th Amendment’s everlasting assurance that no person shall be disadvantaged of the right to vote even in accordance to race or color.

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.

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?

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

Thomas R. Dye and Susan A. Macmanus states, “ courts are political institutions because they attempt to resolve conflicts in society. Courts make public policy in the process of resolving conflicts. Some of the nations most pivotal policy decisions that we follow today have been made by courts rather than legislative or executive bodies at both the federal and state levels.

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. By completing my research I plan to gain knowledge about the subject and I also hope to encourage African Americans to exercise their right to

Both state laws and vigilante practices effectively disenfranchised most black women in the South. The notion of being educated was an important prerequisite for being allowed to vote and since most black women portrayed no ability to do so, they were roughly targeted by white suffragists and people who feared of their say in political matters. Essentially, black people had to wait in line up to twelve hours to register to vote, pay taxes and pass new tests which required them to read and interpret the Constitution before being eligible to vote. Nevertheless, the historic relationship between the women’s issues and the question of color in society was strengthened through the years leading up to the creation of the Voting Rights Act signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on August 6, 1965.

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.

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)

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

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

Up until the year 1870 African Americans could not vote in any election in American. (U.S. Voting Rights). In the past America has been making a lot of changes in our voting system’s equality. In the present, legally African Americans have the same rights as a white man does. In the future the rights will not get any better or worse. Throughout history The African American voting rights have improved to the present day and will stay the same in the near future.

In 2013, the Supreme Court decided to gut the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in Shelby County v. Holder by deciding Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional. The Voting Rights Act was meant to prevent historically discriminatory states from passing discriminatory voting laws. The purpose was to end racial discrimination in voting. Section 4(b) lays out the formula for which these states are selected. Basically, if the state had a history of restricting votes through tests or other means, their voting laws would be subject to review. The constitutionality of this section, as well as Section 5, was brought into question in Shelby County v. Holder.

It has been 52 years since the 1965 Voting Rights Act was put into action, less than a lifetime, and yet it has been easy for the American population to look away from policy changes and ramifications within the Act. Many people today, believe that everyone has the ability to vote if they are a citizen 18 or over, but this has not been the case ever, even in today’s “modern” society. Still, there is a difference between voter restriction laws before 1965, and policies in 2017. It seems as America advances into the future, these racist policies and laws have become more subtle, gerrymandering and voter id policies have become the new literacy tests that prevent black and marginalized voters from voting in recent elections. Another issue that has transpired recently is the 2013 Shelby County V. Holder, which has lifted government involvement within the Southern States, giving them the power to change voting laws as they see fit.

One of the first changes in voting rights began with issuing literacy tests to limited individuals in hopes to earn a chance to vote. Specifically, the 1965 Alabama Literacy Test was given to African Americans before they were declared eligible to vote. This practice was intended to keep African Americans from having any input when it came to voting. The idea of this literacy test was to give African Americans the chance to earn the right to vote but, would not guarantee that right. The 1965 Alabama Literacy Test was part of voter discrimination by only requiring a certain group of individuals participate in taking it. The 1965 Alabama Literacy Test was intended to be challenging to