Voting Rights Act of 1965

THE VOTING RIGHTS Act of 1965 (VRA) has been described as the most successful civil rights measure in American history. The act has two main parts. The first, in Section 2 of the act, is a permanent provision that prohibits the denial of the vote on account of a person's race or color. The second includes Sections 4 and 5, which were originally established as temporary provisions set to expire in five years, but which have been subsequently renewed four times. Under Section 4, states and political subdivisions are covered if they have a history of discrimination, which is defined as the maintenance of electoral qualifications such as literacy tests and the registration of less than 50 percent of the voting-age population in the 1964 election. Under Section 5, covered jurisdictions are required to obtain approval from the federal district court in Washington, D.C., or the U.S. attorney general prior to enacting any new electoral procedures or voting qualifications in a process called preclearance. The district court or the attorney general will only approve such electoral procedures or qualifications if there is no intent or effect of discriminating on account of race. Covered states and political subdivisions may “bail-out” or be exempted from the preclearance requirement if they demonstrate non-discrimination in voting over a certain period of time.

The purpose of the VRA was to eliminate discrimination in voting against African Americans. Partly as a result of discriminatory voting laws such as literacy tests, which were administered in an unfair manner throughout the south, the number of African Americans eligible to vote in the south was miniscule through the first half of the 20th century.

Recognizing the ineffectiveness of a litigation-based strategy to eliminating discriminatory voting laws, and as a response to continued demands from the Civil [Page 852]Rights Movement, Congress passed the far-reaching VRA in 1965. The VRA had the immediate effect of substantially increasing the number of African Americans able to vote, particularly in the south. According to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, the number of African Americans registered to vote increased by more than 1.1 million in six of the covered southern states by 1972.

President Lyndon Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. behind him. The act made progress in stopping discrimination against African Americans at the voting booth.

Early Supreme Court interpretation of the VRA had the effect of broadening the scope of the statute to cover a wider array of electoral procedures. Although the primary target of Congress in enacting the VRA was to do away with laws and procedures that had the purpose or effect of denying the vote to African Americans, the Supreme Court, in the 1969 case of Allen v. State Board of Elections, interpreted the language of Section 5 as requiring states to obtain preclearance prior to enacting laws that might dilute the vote of African Americans.