Voting Rights Dbq
Congressman Gary Franks
December 16, 2013
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 & What Led To It As I sit down and analyze the events that had significance in the time period that was covered in our class, I continue to be amazed at the authorization of The Voting Rights Act in 1965. Its substance not only had such a tremendous impact on many citizens during that time, but it has continued to be a critical component in our government still till this day. For almost fifty years it has been amended and restructured to improve voting rights. The years after the Voting Rights Act has caused a lot of debate and much development to citizens voting rights in America, but many people don’t know what ultimately led to our country achieving this great …show more content…
accomplishment. What led to the act in 1965 were years of struggle. But I believe that in the height of the Civil Rights Movement, citizens wanted and got this act because after Civil Rights Act’s had already been passed, they realized that the power at the ballot box was needed in order for minorities to elect representatives that would enforce, protect, and create new laws for their benefit.
Looking back before the Civil Rights Movement, we learned in class that the South was racially biased for years after Reconstruction faded.
State’s rights took over and became a staple throughout the early and mid 20th century. During that time all of the African-American members of Congress that were elected in the South quickly faded. We once had elected members of congress whom we voted for that would have enforced, protected, and created laws on behalf of black citizens. The Southern states would create legislation to enact “Jim Crow” laws upon the black community. Segregation was at its peak in the United States and the black community had been oppressed long enough. Conforming to the segregated South only caused hostility. The government that recognized blacks as members of society ignored them. In fact, the government that could protect the black community from the violence incurred by terrorist groups was often members of the groups themselves. Rebellion was the only and final option. In order for the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to be ratified by Congress, the black community needed to rebel against the “Jim Crow” laws of the South, the violence invoked by hate organizations, as well as (with assistance from white college students) the hypocrisies of the United States …show more content…
government.
Jim Crow became a general term used in the South to refer to the segregation and discrimination laws that affected African-American life. The name originated from “an 1832 song called Jump Jim Crow by Thomas Rice” (Hillstrom 9). The main purpose of Jim Crow laws was to segregate and disenfranchise the black community. During the Jim Crow era, “various states passed laws that banned blacks from hospitals, schools, parks, theaters, and restaurants” (Hillstrom 9). In all cases, the facilities marked “Colored” were noticeably inferior to the whites. The Jim Crow laws were progressively getting worse for the black community. Lawmakers needed to be black, or abolitionists, in order for the laws to change. Rebellion by way of the ballot box was the answer.
In the United States, the democratic process is supposed to allow voters a chance to correct social injustices. Citizens within the black community should have the ability to vote black candidates into office. Blacks could elect city council members, mayors, judges, and even state representatives. But in Mississippi the people in power, all of whom were white, denied blacks the opportunity to vote. The white community believed that if blacks achieved the right to vote, they would make up the majority. The black majority would force out the racist whites from power and change the social injustices. Mississippi Senator Eugene Bilbo stated, “If you let a few (blacks) register to vote this year, next year there will be twice as many, and the first thing you know, the whole thing will be out of hand” (Aretha 20). The black community needed to vote in order to achieve change. Without the right to vote, segregation and the disenfranchisement of African-Americans would cease to change.
The southern-white lawmakers created a complicated system to keep African-Americans from voting. “White local and state officials systematically kept blacks from voting through formal methods, such as poll taxes and literacy tests” (Summer 1964). The literacy test prevented even educated African-Americans from achieving voter registration. The test required voters to “read and interpret a section of the state constitution to the “satisfactory” of the registrar” (Aretha 21). This allowed “white registrars to decide whether or not a person passed. Most blacks, even those with doctoral degrees, failed” (Cozzens 1). Fear was a constant tactic for the racist south. Black applicants “had to give, under oath, information about his or her address, employment, and family members. This information would then be given to the applicants employer, the KKK, and other organizations” (Let Freedom Ring 149). Having the bravery to rebel against society, by registering to vote, caused many blacks to fear retaliation from the KKK and their employer.
In the post-Civil War era many white Southerners resented the changes imposed by the Union. In the years during Reconstruction, terrorist groups sprang up all over the south. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and the White Citizens Council, “the uptown Klan”, which was often made up of sheriffs, doctors, lawyers, and even mayors, quickly gain thousands of members across the south. The KKK had four explicit tactics in their war against blacks, “First was cross burning, second would be the burning and dynamiting of houses and buildings, third was flogging, and the Fourth was extermination” (Watson 143). In 1964, a single Mississippian county had “37 churches and 30 black homes and businesses were firebombed or burned, and the cases often went unsolved” (Summer 1964). Hate crimes were becoming increasingly common and extremely brutal throughout the South. The black community needed and sought change.
After many years of brutality and hatred, many blacks believed they were inferior to whites. To combat the inferiority thought, Bob Moses created “Freedom Schools” and community centers open to the black community. “The community centers would offer facilities limited by the Jim Crow system: libraries, arts and crafts, daycare, and literacy classes” (Burner 124). Freedom Schools taught students African-American history and current events. Moses saw the Freedom Schools “as an opportunity to teach the “politics of Mississippi” and begin to build a core of educated leadership in the state” (Burner 124). Members of SNCC and CORE believed that rebellion was a necessity, and rebelling with nonviolent methods would allow the nation to see the atrocities inflicted in the south.
In order to gain momentum, the black community needed assistance from the federal government and the national media. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) came to the forefront for reform. In 1961, seven blacks and six whites tested the federal law, which called for the desegregation on interstate travel. Called the Freedom Riders, thirteen people “rode buses into the south, daring the federal government to enforce the law. The Freedom Riders were arrested in North Carolina, beaten by mobs in South Carolina, and saw their buses fire bombed in Alabama” (Watson 24). The thirteen men rode into the south with whites sitting in the back of the bus, the blacks in the front, and would use the same facilities at bus stations as stated by federal law. James Farmer, one of the thirteen riders and the director of CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) stated, “We felt we could count on the racists of the South to create a crisis so that the federal government would be compelled to enforce the law” (Cozzens 1). The rebellion of the thirteen brave men to ride into the south created the national media attention the activist desperately needed. The national media started to show the country how hypocritical the United States had become. Men of many races fought for their country in a time of war, but came home to a country that was at war within itself.
In the early 1960’s, the black community rebelling for equal rights began to capture the attention of Americans across the country. 1964, a presidential election year, was a pivotal time to rebel for the African-American right to vote. For generations the south held a dominant Democratic Party. Rebelling against the injustices set by the “whites-only” Democratic Party could only be changed by use of the ballot box. Bob Moses, a member of SNCC, decided to send volunteers into Mississippi to register voters. The voter registration drive came to be known as “Freedom Summer”. Bob Moses outlined the goals of Freedom Summer as to increase black voter registration and to organize a legally constituted “Freedom Democratic Party” to compete with the whites-only Democratic Party. Moses instructed recruits, “Don’t come to Mississippi this summer to save the Mississippi Negro. Only come if you understand, really understand, that his freedom and yours are one” (Aretha 41).
To achieve the attention of the national media, Moses and other members of SNCC decided to recruit white college students from the north. “Violence against Northern Whites would at least get Mississippi on the nightly news” (Rachall 173). Children of the dominant social class, rebelling against their parents and the accepted society of the south, in fact attracted national attention. Moses stated, “These students bring the rest of the country with them. They are from good schools and their parents are influential. The interest of the country is awakened and when that happens, the government responds” (Aretha 30). Rebelling against the hypocrisies of their nation, their parents, and even society, white college students came by the hundreds to volunteer for “Freedom Summer”.
Volunteers went to Oxford, Ohio, currently the campus of Miami University, for a weeklong orientation. Volunteers were not going to be paid and would need to support themselves. They were told to bring money for living expenses, bail, and even medical bills if necessary. The volunteers had to be prepared for death. James Forman, of SNCC, told the volunteers, “I may be killed, you may be killed, the whole staff may be killed” (Cozzens 3). The students were told that if arrested, go to jail quietly. The authorities would have cause to react violently if volunteers were to resist. The national media and the south would exploit the aggression and discredit the actions of a nonaggressive rebellion.
Rebellious college students used Hitler and Mussolini’s ideologies, fascism and the idea of a united master race, as a direct correlation to what was happening to blacks in the South. World War II was only twenty years prior and the Cold War was just beginning. Many Americans still held hostility towards Germany and the idea of racial class distinctions. The spread of communism and Nuclear War were constant backdrops to every evening newscast. If the United States could announce to the world their “Policy of Containment” then the world should hear about hypocrisy within the United States. The Blacks and volunteers used the memories of the war to prove how fascist ideas were being entertained. Rebelling and protesting would allow the world to see the deceitful ways America.
In June 1964 rebellion against hate crimes, voter rights, and the segregation of blacks was underway.
A Michigan State student said of their arrival in Mississippi, “The greyhound bus dropped us off on a residential street, we had no idea where we were. Almost immediately we found ourselves being circled by pickup trucks with rifles and big dogs in the back” (Aretha 47). Jane Adams, Southern Illinois University, stated, “Mississippi had geared up for war. They saw us as invaders coming in for a complete assault on their way of life. Everybody on both sides expected that there would be a bloodbath. We all expected we could die” (Aretha 47).
Two white men and a black man rebelling against southern society were easy targets for police. Two white men, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, as well as a black volunteer James Chaney were last seen going to a bombed out church to offer their condolences to the congregation and to offer their assistance with the investigation. The men disappeared after being singled out by the racist authorities. The next day, staff called police when the three men failed to check in at their
headquarters.
The police, often members of the KKK, often used their authority to invoke fear into both black and white volunteers. KKK pamphlets declared, “We are now in the midst of the long, hot summer of agitation which was promised to the Innocent People of Mississippi by the savage blacks and their communist masters” (Watson 142). After the disappearance of Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney, President Johnson and the FBI became involved. The story of the missing, as well as the peaceful rebellion, quickly gained national attention. Two of the men’s skin color became a key factor for the instant media. Rita Shwerner declared, “We all know that the search with hundreds of sailors is because my husband and Goodman are white. If only Chaney was involved, nothing would have been done” (Rachal 168). The media may have not paid much attention if only a black man went missing. The media told the story of the missing men on nationally televised nightly newscasts and public outcry immediately followed. Finally the south received assistance from the federal government.
Lyndon Johnson sent hundreds of men from the military to search for the three men. As the search went on, the Mississippi Governor and a member of the White Citizens Council exclaimed, “Of course I don’t approve of murder, but those kids were asking for trouble” (Aretha 50). The shot and beaten bodies of the missing men were found after a month. It later surfaced that the local police arrested the three men for speeding. After dark, the police released the men to the KKK. Eighteen men were originally arrested but only a few were convicted and served light sentences. Finally in 2005, 41 years after the murders, Edgar Ray Killen was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to three life sentences, without the possibility of parole, to be served in succession. After the deaths of Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney was the perfect time for blacks to rebel louder. To achieve the voting rights for the segregated community, the rebellious blacks and whites created a stronger alliance than ever before. By coming together, the black community showed America that the rebellion would not end until equal rights and the ability to vote was achieved.
President Lyndon Johnson attempted to persuade Congress to pass his Voting Rights Act. This proposed legislation removed the right of states to impose restrictions on who could vote in elections. Johnson explained how: "Every American citizen must have an equal right to vote. Yet the harsh fact is that in many places in this country men and women are kept from voting simply because they are Negroes." (Lyndon Johnson 1965) President Johnson issued a call for a strong voting rights law and hearings began soon thereafter on the bill that would become the Voting Rights Act.
Congress concluded that existing federal anti-discrimination laws were ineffective were not sufficient enough to overcome the resistance to enforce the 15th amendment. “Congress had found that case-by-case litigation was inadequate to combat wide-spread and persistent discrimination in voting, because of the inordinate amount of time and energy required to overcome the obstructionist tactics invariably encountered in these lawsuits. After enduring nearly a century of systematic resistance to the Fifteenth Amendment, Congress might well decide to shift the advantage of time and inertia from the perpetrators of the evil to its victims.” (South Carolina v. Katzenbach)
President Johnson signed the resulting legislation into law on August 6, 1965 and it outlawed the requirement that voters in the United States take literacy tests to qualify to register to vote, and it provided for federal registration of voters in areas that had less than 50% of eligible minority voters registered. Although opposed by politicians from the Deep South, the Voting Rights Act was passed by large majorities in the House of Representatives (333 to 48) and the Senate (77 to 19).
After years of rigorous treatment on African Americans, Civil liberties were all on their side now. “Freedom Summer” along with nonviolent protests across the south lead to the signing of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Voting Rights Act “prohibits voting practices or procedures that discriminate on the basis of race, color. Discrimination to voting applies nationwide to any voting standard, practice, or procedure that results in the denial of the right of any citizen to vote. Section 2 is permanent and has no expiration date” (Section 2). Soon after passage of the Voting Rights Act, federal examiners were conducting voter registration, and black voter registration began a sharp increase. Congress had followed through on its job to give African Americans the rights guaranteed to them by the 14th and 15th amendment. Out of the two surveys taken, one in 1965 and one 1988, there showed a dramatic change in the gap between African American voters and white voters. In 1965 there was 50 percent voting rate difference while in 1988there a six percent voting rate difference. The long term effect of change had succeeded.
Soon after the passing of this landmark act gradual change between black and white voting closed in and there was nearly an equal amount of voters of each race. This landmark act allowed the voices of millions of black voters to be heard and was the single most effective bill passed during the civil rights movement and maybe even the entire century. By abolishing literacy tests and poll taxes that prohibited African Americans to vote, America was glued back from its broken pieces of racial hate. It was renewed again in 2006 and left its place in the historical civil rights movement.
Rebellion was a necessity to end the disenfranchisement of the African-American community. Rebellion for the black community was not to conform to the racist south, but to consciously do the opposite. Without rebellion and bravery the south may have never changed. Volunteer Bruce Hartford professed, “We used to say: If you don’t like the history they’re teaching you in school, go out and make some of your own” (Aretha 35). The ballot box was the key to making our own history and promise to changing it from the segregation ways that existed in the early and mid 20th century. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 allowed minorities to go forward forever, and backwards never. In the end, within our democracy you have to vote for those that are going to represent your interests. In order to get the protection against segregation and other issues bothering black people, we needed the enforcement by those that we voted for.
Works Cited
Aretha, David. The Civil Rights Movement: Freedom Summer. U.S.A: Morgan Reynolds, 2008. Print.
Bell, Derrick. Race, Racism and the Law. Ed. Vernellia R. Randall. University of Dayton School of Law. Web. 2 November 2013. < http://academic.udayton.edu/race/02rights/ jcrow02.htm >.
Burner, Eric. And Gently He Shall Lead Them: Robert Parris Moses and Civil Rights in Mississippi. New York: New York UP, 1994. Print.
Cozzens, Lisa. The Civil Rights Movement 1955-1965: African American History. Web. 25 May 1998. .
Hillstrom, Laurie Collier. The Voting Rights Act of 1965. Detroit, MI: Omnigraphics, 2009.
Let Freedom Ring: Mississippi Freedom Summer 1964. Cuny.edu: New York Social Studies Core Curriculum, Grade 11. The City University of New York, n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2013.
Rachal, John R. We 'll Never Turn Back: Adult Education And The Struggle For Citizenship In Mississippi 's Freedom Summer. Adult Education Quarterly 50.3 (2000): 166. Academic Search Complete. Web. 16 Nov. 2013.
"Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act." United States Department of Justice, n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2013. < http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/vot/intro/intro_b.php.>
“Summer 1964”. Freedom Summer 1964. n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2013. < http://shs.westport.k12.ct.us/jwb/ Collab/CivRtsWeb/FreeSum.htm.>
Watson, Bruce. Freedom Summer: the Savage Season That Made Mississippi Burn and Made America a Democracy. New York, NY: Viking, 2010. Print.
December 16, 2013
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 & What Led To It As I sit down and analyze the events that had significance in the time period that was covered in our class, I continue to be amazed at the authorization of The Voting Rights Act in 1965. Its substance not only had such a tremendous impact on many citizens during that time, but it has continued to be a critical component in our government still till this day. For almost fifty years it has been amended and restructured to improve voting rights. The years after the Voting Rights Act has caused a lot of debate and much development to citizens voting rights in America, but many people don’t know what ultimately led to our country achieving this great …show more content…
accomplishment. What led to the act in 1965 were years of struggle. But I believe that in the height of the Civil Rights Movement, citizens wanted and got this act because after Civil Rights Act’s had already been passed, they realized that the power at the ballot box was needed in order for minorities to elect representatives that would enforce, protect, and create new laws for their benefit.
Looking back before the Civil Rights Movement, we learned in class that the South was racially biased for years after Reconstruction faded.
State’s rights took over and became a staple throughout the early and mid 20th century. During that time all of the African-American members of Congress that were elected in the South quickly faded. We once had elected members of congress whom we voted for that would have enforced, protected, and created laws on behalf of black citizens. The Southern states would create legislation to enact “Jim Crow” laws upon the black community. Segregation was at its peak in the United States and the black community had been oppressed long enough. Conforming to the segregated South only caused hostility. The government that recognized blacks as members of society ignored them. In fact, the government that could protect the black community from the violence incurred by terrorist groups was often members of the groups themselves. Rebellion was the only and final option. In order for the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to be ratified by Congress, the black community needed to rebel against the “Jim Crow” laws of the South, the violence invoked by hate organizations, as well as (with assistance from white college students) the hypocrisies of the United States …show more content…
government.
Jim Crow became a general term used in the South to refer to the segregation and discrimination laws that affected African-American life. The name originated from “an 1832 song called Jump Jim Crow by Thomas Rice” (Hillstrom 9). The main purpose of Jim Crow laws was to segregate and disenfranchise the black community. During the Jim Crow era, “various states passed laws that banned blacks from hospitals, schools, parks, theaters, and restaurants” (Hillstrom 9). In all cases, the facilities marked “Colored” were noticeably inferior to the whites. The Jim Crow laws were progressively getting worse for the black community. Lawmakers needed to be black, or abolitionists, in order for the laws to change. Rebellion by way of the ballot box was the answer.
In the United States, the democratic process is supposed to allow voters a chance to correct social injustices. Citizens within the black community should have the ability to vote black candidates into office. Blacks could elect city council members, mayors, judges, and even state representatives. But in Mississippi the people in power, all of whom were white, denied blacks the opportunity to vote. The white community believed that if blacks achieved the right to vote, they would make up the majority. The black majority would force out the racist whites from power and change the social injustices. Mississippi Senator Eugene Bilbo stated, “If you let a few (blacks) register to vote this year, next year there will be twice as many, and the first thing you know, the whole thing will be out of hand” (Aretha 20). The black community needed to vote in order to achieve change. Without the right to vote, segregation and the disenfranchisement of African-Americans would cease to change.
The southern-white lawmakers created a complicated system to keep African-Americans from voting. “White local and state officials systematically kept blacks from voting through formal methods, such as poll taxes and literacy tests” (Summer 1964). The literacy test prevented even educated African-Americans from achieving voter registration. The test required voters to “read and interpret a section of the state constitution to the “satisfactory” of the registrar” (Aretha 21). This allowed “white registrars to decide whether or not a person passed. Most blacks, even those with doctoral degrees, failed” (Cozzens 1). Fear was a constant tactic for the racist south. Black applicants “had to give, under oath, information about his or her address, employment, and family members. This information would then be given to the applicants employer, the KKK, and other organizations” (Let Freedom Ring 149). Having the bravery to rebel against society, by registering to vote, caused many blacks to fear retaliation from the KKK and their employer.
In the post-Civil War era many white Southerners resented the changes imposed by the Union. In the years during Reconstruction, terrorist groups sprang up all over the south. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and the White Citizens Council, “the uptown Klan”, which was often made up of sheriffs, doctors, lawyers, and even mayors, quickly gain thousands of members across the south. The KKK had four explicit tactics in their war against blacks, “First was cross burning, second would be the burning and dynamiting of houses and buildings, third was flogging, and the Fourth was extermination” (Watson 143). In 1964, a single Mississippian county had “37 churches and 30 black homes and businesses were firebombed or burned, and the cases often went unsolved” (Summer 1964). Hate crimes were becoming increasingly common and extremely brutal throughout the South. The black community needed and sought change.
After many years of brutality and hatred, many blacks believed they were inferior to whites. To combat the inferiority thought, Bob Moses created “Freedom Schools” and community centers open to the black community. “The community centers would offer facilities limited by the Jim Crow system: libraries, arts and crafts, daycare, and literacy classes” (Burner 124). Freedom Schools taught students African-American history and current events. Moses saw the Freedom Schools “as an opportunity to teach the “politics of Mississippi” and begin to build a core of educated leadership in the state” (Burner 124). Members of SNCC and CORE believed that rebellion was a necessity, and rebelling with nonviolent methods would allow the nation to see the atrocities inflicted in the south.
In order to gain momentum, the black community needed assistance from the federal government and the national media. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) came to the forefront for reform. In 1961, seven blacks and six whites tested the federal law, which called for the desegregation on interstate travel. Called the Freedom Riders, thirteen people “rode buses into the south, daring the federal government to enforce the law. The Freedom Riders were arrested in North Carolina, beaten by mobs in South Carolina, and saw their buses fire bombed in Alabama” (Watson 24). The thirteen men rode into the south with whites sitting in the back of the bus, the blacks in the front, and would use the same facilities at bus stations as stated by federal law. James Farmer, one of the thirteen riders and the director of CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) stated, “We felt we could count on the racists of the South to create a crisis so that the federal government would be compelled to enforce the law” (Cozzens 1). The rebellion of the thirteen brave men to ride into the south created the national media attention the activist desperately needed. The national media started to show the country how hypocritical the United States had become. Men of many races fought for their country in a time of war, but came home to a country that was at war within itself.
In the early 1960’s, the black community rebelling for equal rights began to capture the attention of Americans across the country. 1964, a presidential election year, was a pivotal time to rebel for the African-American right to vote. For generations the south held a dominant Democratic Party. Rebelling against the injustices set by the “whites-only” Democratic Party could only be changed by use of the ballot box. Bob Moses, a member of SNCC, decided to send volunteers into Mississippi to register voters. The voter registration drive came to be known as “Freedom Summer”. Bob Moses outlined the goals of Freedom Summer as to increase black voter registration and to organize a legally constituted “Freedom Democratic Party” to compete with the whites-only Democratic Party. Moses instructed recruits, “Don’t come to Mississippi this summer to save the Mississippi Negro. Only come if you understand, really understand, that his freedom and yours are one” (Aretha 41).
To achieve the attention of the national media, Moses and other members of SNCC decided to recruit white college students from the north. “Violence against Northern Whites would at least get Mississippi on the nightly news” (Rachall 173). Children of the dominant social class, rebelling against their parents and the accepted society of the south, in fact attracted national attention. Moses stated, “These students bring the rest of the country with them. They are from good schools and their parents are influential. The interest of the country is awakened and when that happens, the government responds” (Aretha 30). Rebelling against the hypocrisies of their nation, their parents, and even society, white college students came by the hundreds to volunteer for “Freedom Summer”.
Volunteers went to Oxford, Ohio, currently the campus of Miami University, for a weeklong orientation. Volunteers were not going to be paid and would need to support themselves. They were told to bring money for living expenses, bail, and even medical bills if necessary. The volunteers had to be prepared for death. James Forman, of SNCC, told the volunteers, “I may be killed, you may be killed, the whole staff may be killed” (Cozzens 3). The students were told that if arrested, go to jail quietly. The authorities would have cause to react violently if volunteers were to resist. The national media and the south would exploit the aggression and discredit the actions of a nonaggressive rebellion.
Rebellious college students used Hitler and Mussolini’s ideologies, fascism and the idea of a united master race, as a direct correlation to what was happening to blacks in the South. World War II was only twenty years prior and the Cold War was just beginning. Many Americans still held hostility towards Germany and the idea of racial class distinctions. The spread of communism and Nuclear War were constant backdrops to every evening newscast. If the United States could announce to the world their “Policy of Containment” then the world should hear about hypocrisy within the United States. The Blacks and volunteers used the memories of the war to prove how fascist ideas were being entertained. Rebelling and protesting would allow the world to see the deceitful ways America.
In June 1964 rebellion against hate crimes, voter rights, and the segregation of blacks was underway.
A Michigan State student said of their arrival in Mississippi, “The greyhound bus dropped us off on a residential street, we had no idea where we were. Almost immediately we found ourselves being circled by pickup trucks with rifles and big dogs in the back” (Aretha 47). Jane Adams, Southern Illinois University, stated, “Mississippi had geared up for war. They saw us as invaders coming in for a complete assault on their way of life. Everybody on both sides expected that there would be a bloodbath. We all expected we could die” (Aretha 47).
Two white men and a black man rebelling against southern society were easy targets for police. Two white men, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, as well as a black volunteer James Chaney were last seen going to a bombed out church to offer their condolences to the congregation and to offer their assistance with the investigation. The men disappeared after being singled out by the racist authorities. The next day, staff called police when the three men failed to check in at their
headquarters.
The police, often members of the KKK, often used their authority to invoke fear into both black and white volunteers. KKK pamphlets declared, “We are now in the midst of the long, hot summer of agitation which was promised to the Innocent People of Mississippi by the savage blacks and their communist masters” (Watson 142). After the disappearance of Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney, President Johnson and the FBI became involved. The story of the missing, as well as the peaceful rebellion, quickly gained national attention. Two of the men’s skin color became a key factor for the instant media. Rita Shwerner declared, “We all know that the search with hundreds of sailors is because my husband and Goodman are white. If only Chaney was involved, nothing would have been done” (Rachal 168). The media may have not paid much attention if only a black man went missing. The media told the story of the missing men on nationally televised nightly newscasts and public outcry immediately followed. Finally the south received assistance from the federal government.
Lyndon Johnson sent hundreds of men from the military to search for the three men. As the search went on, the Mississippi Governor and a member of the White Citizens Council exclaimed, “Of course I don’t approve of murder, but those kids were asking for trouble” (Aretha 50). The shot and beaten bodies of the missing men were found after a month. It later surfaced that the local police arrested the three men for speeding. After dark, the police released the men to the KKK. Eighteen men were originally arrested but only a few were convicted and served light sentences. Finally in 2005, 41 years after the murders, Edgar Ray Killen was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to three life sentences, without the possibility of parole, to be served in succession. After the deaths of Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney was the perfect time for blacks to rebel louder. To achieve the voting rights for the segregated community, the rebellious blacks and whites created a stronger alliance than ever before. By coming together, the black community showed America that the rebellion would not end until equal rights and the ability to vote was achieved.
President Lyndon Johnson attempted to persuade Congress to pass his Voting Rights Act. This proposed legislation removed the right of states to impose restrictions on who could vote in elections. Johnson explained how: "Every American citizen must have an equal right to vote. Yet the harsh fact is that in many places in this country men and women are kept from voting simply because they are Negroes." (Lyndon Johnson 1965) President Johnson issued a call for a strong voting rights law and hearings began soon thereafter on the bill that would become the Voting Rights Act.
Congress concluded that existing federal anti-discrimination laws were ineffective were not sufficient enough to overcome the resistance to enforce the 15th amendment. “Congress had found that case-by-case litigation was inadequate to combat wide-spread and persistent discrimination in voting, because of the inordinate amount of time and energy required to overcome the obstructionist tactics invariably encountered in these lawsuits. After enduring nearly a century of systematic resistance to the Fifteenth Amendment, Congress might well decide to shift the advantage of time and inertia from the perpetrators of the evil to its victims.” (South Carolina v. Katzenbach)
President Johnson signed the resulting legislation into law on August 6, 1965 and it outlawed the requirement that voters in the United States take literacy tests to qualify to register to vote, and it provided for federal registration of voters in areas that had less than 50% of eligible minority voters registered. Although opposed by politicians from the Deep South, the Voting Rights Act was passed by large majorities in the House of Representatives (333 to 48) and the Senate (77 to 19).
After years of rigorous treatment on African Americans, Civil liberties were all on their side now. “Freedom Summer” along with nonviolent protests across the south lead to the signing of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Voting Rights Act “prohibits voting practices or procedures that discriminate on the basis of race, color. Discrimination to voting applies nationwide to any voting standard, practice, or procedure that results in the denial of the right of any citizen to vote. Section 2 is permanent and has no expiration date” (Section 2). Soon after passage of the Voting Rights Act, federal examiners were conducting voter registration, and black voter registration began a sharp increase. Congress had followed through on its job to give African Americans the rights guaranteed to them by the 14th and 15th amendment. Out of the two surveys taken, one in 1965 and one 1988, there showed a dramatic change in the gap between African American voters and white voters. In 1965 there was 50 percent voting rate difference while in 1988there a six percent voting rate difference. The long term effect of change had succeeded.
Soon after the passing of this landmark act gradual change between black and white voting closed in and there was nearly an equal amount of voters of each race. This landmark act allowed the voices of millions of black voters to be heard and was the single most effective bill passed during the civil rights movement and maybe even the entire century. By abolishing literacy tests and poll taxes that prohibited African Americans to vote, America was glued back from its broken pieces of racial hate. It was renewed again in 2006 and left its place in the historical civil rights movement.
Rebellion was a necessity to end the disenfranchisement of the African-American community. Rebellion for the black community was not to conform to the racist south, but to consciously do the opposite. Without rebellion and bravery the south may have never changed. Volunteer Bruce Hartford professed, “We used to say: If you don’t like the history they’re teaching you in school, go out and make some of your own” (Aretha 35). The ballot box was the key to making our own history and promise to changing it from the segregation ways that existed in the early and mid 20th century. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 allowed minorities to go forward forever, and backwards never. In the end, within our democracy you have to vote for those that are going to represent your interests. In order to get the protection against segregation and other issues bothering black people, we needed the enforcement by those that we voted for.
Works Cited
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