Even if individuals could read the administrator in charge could create impossible questions for an individual to answer before being able to register. With the Voting Rights Act of 1965 the literacy test and any discriminatory voting, practices were outlawed as prerequisites of voting. The 15th Amendment granted African American men the right to vote. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 enforced this amendment. The 19th amendment granted women the right to vote.
“The second section of the amendment said that if a state denies the right to vote to citizens of the United States, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens 21 years of age in such states”. This meant that if the South refused to let the Negro vote, it would be punished by a cut in the number of representatives each state had in the House”. (Latham 1969). Though there wasn’t technically a law that African Americans couldn’t vote, there were laws targeted towards
This was due to literacy tests and poll taxes. In 1870, the 15th Amendment was ratified. This amendment gave all Americans the right to vote regardless of race (Document C). However, after the amendment was passed, Southern states passed a series of laws designed to restrict African Americans voting rights. First, they added the grandfather clause.
After the march the right for African Americans to vote in the south was becoming possible for them. Later, August 6,1965. The president signed a law, Voting Rights Act of 1965, stating the southern states must stop their practice of discrimination and not allowing African Americans to vote. James Meredith’s March Against Fear affected the present and future non-segregation between blacks and
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was created, by Lyndon B. Johnson, to further enforce the 15th Amendment of the United States. The purpose of the act was to ensure democracy within the United States by giving everyone an equal ability to practice their rights. Throughout the history of the United States, African Americans have been denied of their basic freedoms as citizens. The Voting Rights Act made it harder for states to further deny African-Americans, and other
The Fifteenth Amendment, which was ratified February 3, 1870, states that the “right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” By dodging around the Amendment, people still found ways to disclude African Americans from voting. According to Document L, “Denying black men the right to vote through legal maneuvering and violence was a first step in taking away their civil rights. Beginning in 1890s, southern states enacted literacy tests... The laws proved very effective.
The 15th Amendment (Amendment XV), which gave African-American men the right to vote, was inserted into the U.S. Constitution on March 30, 1870. Passed by Congress the year before, the amendment says, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Although the amendment was passed in the late 1870s, many racist practices were used to oppose African-Americans from voting, especially in the Southern States like Georgia and Alabama. After many years of racism, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 aimed to overthrow legal barricades at the state and local levels that deny African-Americans their right to vote. In the
A civil rights activist named Martin Luther King Jr pushed for the Voting Rights Act to be passed. The protest in Selma Alabama helped push the Voting Rights Act to be passed. The Voting Rights Act of 1964 was finally passed in 1968, but not everyone was happy about this. Many democrats called the Voting Rights Act of 1964 unconstitutional. Even though some were not happy about the Voting Rights act being passed, thousands upon thousands of blacks went to register to vote after its
The 1965 voting rights Act was passed by President Lyndon B. Johnson , it stated that people no longer had to complete literacy tests when voting. It also prohibited poll taxes as it was a way to keep those who could not afford them from voting, especially African-Americans. President Johnson wanted to eliminate all the barriers that kept African-Americans from voting. Within the next five years the number of black voters increased from 70% in 1964 to 67 % in 1969. By the year 1980 the amount of African-American voters surpassed the total amount of Caucasian voters.
The Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965 was a significant part of black America. It opened doors to many black Americans to vote after years of discriminatory and violent acts laid upon them. However, this does not lead to permanent change, only temporary. Black America in the 1960s continue to struggle with state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote, despite being guaranteed under the 15th amendment. The VRA sought to eliminate obstacles to voting that prohibits any insinuation of racial discrimination.
As the United States was being built as a country many years ago, specifically during the Reconstruction era, African Americans in the South were given the right to vote while they were constantly strayed away from voting. For many years the right to vote was not given to all American citizens. In 1870 the 15th Amendment was ratified so that the right to vote for any American citizen should not be denied or abridged. Although this amendment was put in place many times African Americans strayed away from voting due to poll taxes, literacy tests and other things that easily discouraged them. Not until 1965 was the “Voting Rights of 1965” established, by President Lyndon B. Johnson, which prohibited the racial discrimination of voting.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was created August 6th, 1965 signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson after much conversations both private and public, major and minor, they all did their job to affect President Lyndon to come to a option soon enough. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was a major event allowing blacks to vote/register. Martin Luther King Jr. was the most famous of the people who gave speeches about racial segregation though he was one of the only ones who used peace in his speeches, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was much influenced by Martin Luther King Jr.’s crowd and his ground shaking and motivating speeches, much was going on during the creation process of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the events that happened creation process
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 The Fifteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution states that “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude” (qtd. in “Voting Rights for”). This amendment passed in 1870 allowed for every U.S. citizen to have the right to vote, however, inequality among groups of people has been a pressing issue in the United States for numerous centuries. From the influx of native Africans during the slave trade to the Americas in the 1700s, African Americans have endured extreme amounts of discrimination and oppression.
Although technically people of color had the right, white people were making it very difficult to register. When African Americans went to register they would be tested continuously, something white people never had to deal with. Only two percent of African Americans in the south could vote. Before the march from Selma to Montgomery there were many protests to try to gain fair voting rights. One man, Jimmie Lee Jackson was killed at a peaceful protest by a state trooper.
Even though the government adopted the Voting Rights Act in 1965, African Americans’ suffrages were still restricted because of southern states’ obstructions. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was important for blacks to participate in political elections, but before this act was passed, there were several events led to its proposal. The government gave African Americans’ the right to vote by passing the 15th Amendment, but in the Southern States, blacks’ suffrages were limited by grandfather clauses, “poll taxes, literacy tests, and other bureaucratic restrictions” (ourdocuments.gov). As times went on, most African Americans couldn’t register their votes.
