congress passed the voting rights act on march 17, 1965.
congress passed the voting rights act on march 17, 1965.
when did congress pass the voting rights act?
march 17, 1965
the voting rights act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the united states that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. it was signed into law by president lyndon b. johnson during the height of the civil rights movement on august 6, 1965, and congress later amended the act five times to expand its protections. designed to enforce the voting rights guaranteed by the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to the united states constitution, the act secured the right to vote for racial minorities throughout the country, especially in the south. according to the u.s. department of justice, the act is considered to be the most effective piece of federal civil rights legislation ever enacted in the country.
voting rights act of 1965
congress responded to rampant discrimination against racial minorities in public accommodations and government services by passing the civil rights act of 1964. the act included some voting rights protections; it required registrars to equally administer literacy tests in writing to each voter and to accept applications that contained minor errors, and it created a rebuttable presumption that persons with a sixth-grade education were sufficiently literate to vote. however, despite lobbying from civil rights leaders, the act did not prohibit most forms of voting discrimination. president lyndon b. johnson recognized this, and shortly after the 1964 elections in which democrats gained overwhelming majorities in both chambers of congress, he privately instructed attorney general nicholas katzenbach to draft "the goddamndest, toughest voting rights act that you can". however, johnson did not publicly push for the legislation at the time; his advisers warned him of political costs for vigorously pursuing a voting rights bill so soon after congress had passed the civil rights act of 1964, and johnson was concerned that championing voting rights would endanger his great society reforms by angering southern democrats in congress.
voting rights act of 1965