Voting Rights Act Of 1965 Essay

Sharon Salzberg once said, “Voting is the expression of our commitment to ourselves, one another, this country and this world.” This is relevant to today because voting is overlooked and taken for granted. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 provided equal rights to all people and enabled all races the equality they deserve. This act was signed into law on August 6, 1965, by President Lyndon Johnson. It outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting.
After the U.S. Civil War , the 15th Amendment prohibited states from denying a male citizen the right to vote based on race, color or previous condition of servitude, meaning previous slaves had the right to vote. Nevertheless, in the following decades, various discriminatory practices were used to prevent African Americans, particularly those in the South, from exercising their right to vote. Blacks, who had low literacy rates after years of poverty and oppression from their white owners, were forced to take literacy tests, which they unavoidably failed. Other extreme tests were administered to African Americans that would even be a challenge to
educated white Americans. Officials would lie to African Americans, telling them that polls were closed, that they had the date or time wrong, or even that they had filled out an application incorrectly to deter them from voting. Black voters also risked physical violence and harassment when trying to register or vote.
The Voting Rights Act was aimed to help problems at the state and local levels that prevented blacks from voting. Previously the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended segregation in employment, education, and all public places. However, African American voters were still turned away at the poles. After a brutal incident involving peaceful protesters in a voting rights march were attacked by state troopers, President Lyndon B. Johnson knew voting issues had to be addressed. Less than five months later, the Voting Rights Act was passed in the Senate and House of Representatives and signed into law by President Johnson. Literacy tests were outlawed, Federal examiners were appointed to register qualified voters, and the denial of the right to vote for the reason of race were abolished under the new law.
The Voting Rights Act had an immediate impact on voters.
In less than a year, a quarter of a million new African American voters were registered to vote. In the years following the passing of the act, the number of blacks in the House of Representatives over doubled, giving African Americans the voice in government they deserved. According to Martin Luther King Jr. the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was an essential piece of legislation to guarantee civil rights for African Americans. The Act was not accepted without conflict. Instantly, it was challenged in court as a result of such a significant change in the federalism between the state and federal government. The Supreme Court upheld the new law and declared it constitutional, cementing the rights of African American
voters.
(Thesis) Many discriminatory voting practices Southern states used to prevent African Americans from voting included literacy tests, poll taxes, and harassment. President Lyndon Johnson greatly helped the civil rights movement in his influential persuasion to pass the bill to stop the prejudice. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 ensured African Americans’ right to expressing their commitment to themselves and their country.