05 August 2005
United States Celebrates Voting Rights Act's 40th Anniversary
Civil rights rally August 6 to commemorate law, urge renewal
Washington – From the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, Americans have demonstrated, protested and given their lives for one basic freedom: the right to vote.
But true victory did not come for all citizens of the United States until President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law in 1965.
“[On] the issue of equal rights for American Negroes … the command of the Constitution is plain. It is wrong -- deadly wrong -- to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country," President Johnson said of the landmark effort that transformed the U.S. vote.
August 6, 2005, marks the 40th anniversary of the signing of this act, which outlawed literacy tests and poll taxes as means of assessing whether or not someone was fit to vote. The act requires only American citizenship and one’s name on the list of registered voters.
To commemorate the anniversary, a coalition of activists is holding a march and rally in Atlanta, Georgia, on August 6. Civil rights groups, labor unions, members of Congress, and religious and political leaders will participate. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Service Employees International Union, the Reverend Jesse L. Jackson Sr., AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, and Representatives John Lewis and Maxine Waters are among the many who plan to attend.
The march and rally serve not only to commemorate the anniversary but also to publicize a campaign to extend the Voting Rights Act, provisions of which will expire in 2007 if not renewed.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced his commitment to ensuring the renewal of the act in a speech in Austin, Texas, on August 2. “As our pursuit of voting rights has evolved, so too has our commitment to the founding values of our country," he said. "And it will continue as we work with Congress to reauthorize the historic Voting Rights Act.”
Other commemorative activities include the opening of an exhibit at Atlanta’s Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site chronicling the struggle of African-Americans to secure their right to vote..
The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in February 1870, promised: “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.”
Minorities, however, especially African-Americans, were still prevented from voting because of qualifying factors such as literary tests and poll taxes.
It took the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s for African-Americans to gain enough support to truly win the inalienable right to vote. The passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 ignited the passions of both blacks and whites around the country to organize and rally for the rights of blacks.
The campaign to bring about federal intervention in the fight for civil rights culminated with the historic Selma-to-Montgomery March in Alabama. On March 7, 1965, a day known in infamy throughout the country as “Bloody Sunday,” the marchers set out on their path to Montgomery, only to be met by police who attacked them with clubs and tear gas, sending them back to Selma. The protesters managed to complete their march three weeks later, gaining 25,000 participants by March 25.
Following this public demonstration, President Johnson (a Democrat) joined with Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen (a Republican), assuring bipartisan support, to craft the legislation that would become the Voting Rights Act. The House of Representatives passed the act by a 328-74 margin on August 3, and the Senate followed the next day, voting 79-18 -- in both cases an overwhelming majority.
President Johnson signed the act on August 6, accompanied by civil rights leaders Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis (now a member of Congress).
By the end of 1965, the five states of the “Deep South” alone registered 160,000 new African-American voters. The effects of the higher participation of black voters can be seen today: in 2000, registration of African-Americans trailed that of whites by only 2 percent.
Attorney General Gonzales recognized the importance of the act and the significance of its effects on the American voting demographic in his August 2 speech: “In 1965, President Johnson said that ‘the vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice.’ President Johnson could not have been more right. And that’s why we strive today to give every single American a voice in our democracy.”
For more background, see The 40th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
