Voting Rights Act

Examples of Voting Rights Act in the following topics:

• Civil Rights and Voting Rights

  • The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were landmark pieces of legislation that addressed major forms of discrimination.
  • The bill would soon be followed by the equally momentous Voting Rights Act, which effectively ended the disenfranchisement of blacks in the South.
  • Kennedy called for a civil rights act in his speech about civil rights on June 11, 1963.
  • His proposal, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, prohibited states and local governments from passing laws that discriminated against voters on the basis of race.
  • The Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act changed the lives of African Americans and transformed society in many ways.

• Legislative Change

  • The Civil Rights Act of 1957, primarily a voting rights bill, was the first civil rights legislation enacted by Congress in the United States since the Reconstruction Era following the American Civil War.
  • The goal of the 1957 Civil Rights Act was to ensure that all Americans could exercise their right to vote.
  • The Civil Rights Act of 1960 addressed some of the shortcomings of the 1957 act.
  • Designed to enforce the voting rights guaranteed by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, the Act secured voting rights for racial minorities throughout the country, especially in the South.
  • Analyze the gains and limitations of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, and 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

• The Flowering of Black Freedom Struggle

  • Eight days after the first march, President Johnson delivered a televised address to support the voting rights bill he had sent to Congress.
  • Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which suspended poll taxes, literacy tests, and other subjective voter tests.
  • It authorized Federal supervision of voter registration in states and individual voting districts where such tests were being used.
  • Blacks' regaining the power to vote changed the political landscape of the South.
  • When Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, only about 100 African Americans held elective office, all in northern states of the U.S.

• The Emergence of the Civil Rights Movement

  • The three Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965 were part of the voting rights movement underway in Selma, Alabama.
  • By highlighting racial injustice in the South, they contributed to passage that year of the Voting Rights Act, a landmark federal achievement of the Civil Rights Movement.
  • The Voting Rights Act of 1965, which restored and protected voting rights.
  • Designed to enforce the voting rights guaranteed by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, the Act secured voting rights for racial minorities throughout the country, especially in the South.
  • The Fair Housing Act of 1968 (known also as the Civil Rights Act of 1968), which banned discrimination in the sale or rental of housing.

• The Spread of Segregation

  • It prevented any state from denying the right to vote to any male citizen on account of his race.
  • As no African-American in the South could have voted then, this denied nearly all of the freed men their right to vote.
  • Prominant African-American leaders, such as Frederick Douglass, advocated for voting rights laws and against the racism in the south.
  • They argued that voting rights were essential for African-Americans in the post-war south to prevent racist white southerners from regaining political control of southern states and exercising undue power in Congress.
  • Generally, the remaining Jim Crow laws were overruled by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

• Johnson's Battle with Congress

  • However, the amendment did not declare the vote an unconditional right; it only prohibited these examples of discrimination.
  • One major purpose of this was to protect African Americans' right to vote.
  • For example, the Reconstruction Acts denied the right to vote from men who had sworn to uphold the Constitution only to rebel against the Federal Government.
  • Because so many white men fought for the Confederacy, they were thus denied the right to vote.
  • The states were also required to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and grant voting rights to black men

• The Triumph of Congressional Reconstruction

  • The 15th Amendment, passed in February 1870, decreed that the right to vote could not be denied on the basis of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude".
  • One major purpose was to recognize and protect the right of African Americans to vote.
  • The Reconstruction Acts denied the right to vote for men who had sworn to uphold the Constitution and then rebelled against the Federal Government.
  • In addition, Congress required that each state draft a new state constitution--which would have to be approved by Congress--and that each state ratify the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and grant voting rights to black men.
  • Uncle Sam is at left, and another figure with a monkey stands at right.

• Liberty and Property

  • The Stamp Act stirred activity among colonial representatives to denounce what they saw as the disregard of colonial rights by the Crown.
  • To protect the rights of colonists, delegates of the Stamp Act Congress drafted the Declaration of Rights and Grievances, declaring that taxes imposed on British colonists without their formal consent were unconstitutional.
  • The Declaration of Rights raised fourteen points of colonial protest.
  • " speech against the Stamp Act of 1765.
  • Differentiate between the Declaration of Rights and Grievances and the Virginia Resolves

• The Impeachment and Trial of Johnson

  • Johnson was acquitted by one vote.
  • When Johnson began his first term as president, however, he unexpectedly proclaimed general amnesty for most former confederates, and vetoed legislation that extended civil rights and financial support for former slaves.
  • After gaining majority in Congress during the midterm elections, the Radicals managed not only to pass civil rights legislation, but also to wrestle control of Reconstruction away from the president.
  • Three days later, the House of Representatives voted 126 to 47 to impeach the President of high crimes and misdemeanors.
  • Both sides argued the legitimacy of the Act ..In the end, 35 Senators voted "guilty" and 19 "non-guilty"; because the Constitution requires a two-thirds majority for conviction in impeachment trials, Johnson was thus acquitted by one vote.

• Women and the Law

  • Women also lacked the right to bring suit, file for divorce, pursue legal recourse, or vote.
  • The Married Women's Property Act of 1839 was an act of statute in the state of Mississippi that significantly altered the law regarding property rights granted to married women, allowing them to own and control their own property.
  • Women's property rights were again extended in 1860.
  • The Married Women's Property Act set a precedent for women's property rights that is thought to have influenced legislators' decision to maintain gender-neutral language in the Homestead Act of 1862, allowing any individual to file an application for a federal land grant.
  • One of Elizabeth Cady Stanton's many accomplishments for women's rights was the Married Women's Property Act of 1839.