The Voting Rights Act

The Voting Rights Act

In the century following reconstruction blacks in the south faced devastating obstacles to voting. Despite the 15th and 19th amendments to the U.S. constitution, which had enfranchised black men and women, southern voter registration boards used poll taxes, literacy tests, and other bureaucratic impediments to reject blacks their legal rights. Southern blacks also risked harassment, intimidation, economic reprisals, and physical violence when they tried to register or vote. As a result, African Americans had little if any political power, either locally or nationally. In Mississippi only five percent of eligible blacks were registered to vote in 1960.

The voting rights act of 1965 grew out of both public protest and private political negotiation. Starting in 1961, CORE joined SCLC in staging nonviolent demonstrations in Georgia, and Birmingham. They hoped to attract national media attention and pressure the U.S. government to protect Black's constitutional rights. Newspaper photos and TV broadcasts of Birmingham's racist police commissioner, Eugene Connor, and his men viciously attacking the protesters with water hoses, police dogs, and nightsticks awakened the consciences of whites.

The next campaign took place in Selma, Alabama. In the first three months of 1965, Local residents and visiting volunteers held a series of marches demanding an equal right to vote. In Birmingham, they met with violence and imprisonment. In the worst attack yet, on Sunday, March 7, a group of Alabama state troopers, local sheriff's officers, and unofficial posse men used tear gas and clubs against 600 peaceful marchers. By now, the nation was watching.

The Voting Rights Act was extended in 1970, 1975, and 1982. Some key provisions are scheduled to expire in 2007. Despite some setbacks and debates, the Voting Rights Act had an enormous impact. It re-enfranchised black southerners, helping elect African Americans at the local, state, and national levels.