Voting Rights Acts

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed to enforce the provisions of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. The Fifteenth Amendment was passed in 1870 as one of what have come to be known as the Civil Rights Amendments, which include the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments. The Thirteenth Amendment outlawed slavery, the Fourteenth Amendment extended the rights of citizenry to all those who had suffered as enslaved people prior to 1866, and the Fifteenth Amendment extended the right to vote to all citizens of the United States regardless of “race, color or previous condition of servitude.” Under each amendment, Congress was given the authority to pass any “appropriate legislation” to enforce the amendment's provisions.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was enacted as the major enforcement mechanism for the Fifteenth Amendment because of the continuing efforts by many jurisdictions, primarily the former slaveholding states in the southeastern part of the nation, to inhibit the ability of African Americans to vote or be elected to office. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act (VRA) into law on August 6, 1965.

Transcript

• The Bill’s aim is to bring to fruition the goal of minority groups that have staged protests throughout the nation. This is a demonstration in Montgomery, Alabama, led by Dr. Martin Luther King. In contrast to the violence of many marches, this one is held peacefully, with police blessing and under permit. The day before, the marches had been dispersed by state troopers and sheriff’s deputies when they marched without a permit. Today, troopers and deputies are absent. Only city police line the route of march. [Music] A parade passes through the heart of Montgomery, past the state capital, to the county court house, a mile from the starting point. The only sign of disorder was the blowing of horns by impatient motorists. Not a club was raised in anger. A throng later hears Dr. King summarize a meeting he had with the County Sheriff. He said that they were near agreement on future demonstrations, and he saw peace in Montgomery.

The congressional hearings that occurred prior to the passage of the VRA indicated that although the right to vote had been granted to African Americans, many jurisdictions had pursued various tactics inhibiting people of color and poor white people from casting their ballots in elections. Some of these restrictions included “literacy” tests such as reciting the U.S. Constitution from memory, property ownership requirements, and poll taxes, among others. Although the Fifteenth Amendment was a clear statement of a constitutionally protected right, it lacked an enforcement mechanism; the VRA was passed as the “appropriate legislation” that would act as this enforcement instrument.