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The Voting Rights Act (VRA) Of 1965

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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. These obstacles vary from invalidating any literacy test or device that denies voting, or the dreaded poll tax. In addition, the VRA’s operation brought positive changes to many racial minorities’ …show more content…

Part of the VRA’s goal was to end aggravated violence among the black and white community. Examples of such unrestrained violence are elaborated in text, describing the events of what took place during the Selma to Montgomery march, quoting, “The state troopers and Clark’s posse chased and beat the fleeing marchers all the way back to the Brown Chapel.” State troopers and county possemen attacked the unarmed marchers with tear gas and billy clubs. This event became known as “Bloody Sunday.” Another example of exacerbated violence was “the murder of the white Detroit housewife Viola Liuzzo, a thirty-nine-year-old mother of five gunned down on Route 80 by Alabama Klansmen after she had attended the Selma to Montgomery …show more content…

This was especially the case from the more conservative states under the Republican Party, that tried to curb voting rights with extreme levels of escalation in passing of laws-making it harder to vote. The deep South had made the same argument before in the Supreme Court when they unsuccessfully challenged the constitutionality of the VRA in 1966. When the first presidential candidate, Ronald Reagan, kicked off his election campaign, he announced his support for states’ rights, ultimately, disparaging the VRA. Furthermore, Reagan gained massive support from white segregationists and devoted himself in restoring the states and local communities as they were prior. As Berman quotes, “Is Reagan saying that he intends to do everything he can to turn the clock back to the Mississippi justice of 1964?” This fundamentally means that even the highest power of authority can denounce the exercise the right to vote, in spite of what is moral or

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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.

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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

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We see multiple successes of voting equality attempted through amendments, however, the Supreme Court’s decision on Shelby County v. Holder has pushed back years and years of effort for voting rights. Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling was in Shelby County’s favor, stating that the Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act was unconstitutional along with Section 5. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr, who wrote the majority’s opinion, said that the power to regulate election was reserved to the states, not the federal government. As a result to the court’s decision, the federal government can no longer determine which voting law discriminates and can be passed. After the case, many states had freely passed new voting laws; the most common voting law states passed

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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

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To accomplish social equality and justice has been a long controversial issue in U.S. history. Voting Rights Act of 1965 should be understood as a tremendous accomplishment today because it not only represent a symbol of the triumph of fighting social injustice, but also open the first gate for African American and minority to strive for more political power in order to create a “great society.”

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Fleming’s article, ‘"We Shall Overcome": Tennessee and the Civil Rights Movement,’ was the right for blacks to vote. Even though the blacks had received the right to vote after WWII, many white Tennesseans had found reasons to stop the black people from being able to cast their votes. These included clauses, poll taxes, and even literacy testing. The threat of violence was also used to stop black citizens from voting. Some Tennesseans knew that the violence and unfair laws were something that needed to be changed.

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Now move forward to 1960 the progressive voters league started informing black people about political issues and they also encouraged blacks to vote. Go forward five years to 1965 the federal voting rights act is adopted in Texas which eliminated all local restrictions on voting and required federal marshals to monitor the election proceedings. This history of voter suppression is what played a major role in making the tactics that politician use today and what makes Texas suppression tactics the toughest among the other states. It also shows how far Texas voter suppression tactics go back in history and how racial discrimination was the main cause behind the suppression of other races from voting. Even today people say that voter id laws and voter suppression is way to discrimatory.

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The Civil Rights Act paved the way for two major laws, the Voting Act 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. During the Civil Rights movement, many voters that were African Americans were mistreated and treated with violence. Though after the Civil War, the 15th Amendment was ratified, which prohibited states for denying a male citizen the freedom to vote based on race, their skin color, or previous condition of servitude, for decades African Americans continued to be

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After the war, though the Fourteenth Amendment granted African Americans the rights of citizenship, it didn’t automatically translate into the ability to vote, and normally, after the war, African Americans found themselves systematically turned away from state polling places. And though, to combat said problem, the Fifteenth Amendment was passed, allowing African Americans to vote no matter their race, color, or previous servitude, some states still found a way to circumvent the Constitution and prevent those of color from voting. That way being the “implication” of poll taxes, which required African Americans to pay to vote, literacy tests, which required the African Americans to be ‘literate” as well as serving as a way to “prove intelligence,” the grandfather clause, which kept descendants of slaves out of elections, unless it could be proved that one's grandfather had voted, and intimidation—-all used to prevent African Americans from

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On August 6, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the 15th amendment. Before this law was signed, African Americans in the South had trouble voting mostly because of discrimination. In result, they had little say in government. The 15th amendment, also known as the Voting Rights Act of 1965 said that African American men had the right to vote. It said that all citizens had the right to vote no matter what

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Voting Rights Act of 1965 The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was set into place to make sure that state and local voting stations would not prevent African Americans from their right to vote. The fifteenth amendment allows anyone, specifically males, to vote no matter what their race is. People were outraged about the amendment being passed; allowing people of a different race to vote. At the time, Lyndon Johnson was president.

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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.

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In 1856 the vote shifted to all white males. In 1870 the right to vote was given to all African Americans, but it did not last because of Southern State’s Jim Crow laws in 1889. These disenfranchisement laws were placed to once again limit the rights of all Black Americans. To severely prohibit the ability for blacks to vote, people did all they could to make it as difficult as possible for most free slaves and their next generation to simply stay out of the nominations entirely. These Southern states would remake franchise laws to enable a strict regulation on being eligible to vote.

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The writers’ major argument of this article is that even though the Voting Rights Act has been in effect for fifty years, mainly Republican legislators have used tactics to undermine and cut out

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An experienced attorney can help you determine if you have a valid claim. You can check out FindLaw 's attorney directory today for professional legal help with your claim. of 1965 (VRA) bans the denial or restriction of the right to vote and forbids discrimination in voting practices on the basis of race and color

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