US History

Postwar United States (1945 to early 1970s)

African Americans

Law and Government

This collection uses primary sources to explore the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Teaching Guide: Exploring the Voting Rights Act of 1965

A joint resolution proposing the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, 1869.

A 1926 letter from William E. Borah to W. E. B. Du Bois about the Fifteenth Amendment. 

An 1872 political cartoon called “One Vote Less,” which comments on racial violence during Reconstruction.

A poll-tax petition from 1930s Tennessee.

A 1958 citizenship test from the Georgia State Voter Registration Act.

An excerpt from The Voting Rights Act of 1965.

A photograph of President Lyndon B. Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act, 1965.

A television news clip of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking about the Summer Community Organization and Political Education project, June 1965.

A photograph of marchers on the third Selma to Montgomery civil rights march, March 25, 1965.

An excerpt from a television news broadcast in March 1965 in which Carl Sanders, the governor of Georgia, speaks on voting rights.

An excerpt from a 1975 report from the United States Commission on Civil Rights about the Voting Rights Act after ten years.

An excerpt from congressional hearings on voting rights from 1993.

The 2006 Act to Amend the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

An excerpt from a 2014 US Senate hearing on the Voting Rights Amendment Act.

Resources

1. [Congress and the Voting Rights Act of 1965](https://www.archives.gov/legislative/features/voting-rights-1965), National Archives and Records Administration. 
2. [History of Federal Voting Rights Laws](https://www.justice.gov/crt/history-federal-voting-rights-laws), United States Department of Justice. 
3. “[The Voting Rights Act at 50: How It Changed the World](http://time.com/3985479/voting-rights-act-1965-results/),” *Time*. 
4. “[A Dream Undone](https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/29/magazine/voting-rights-act-dream-undone.html?_r=0),” *The New York Times Magazine*. 

Overview

In 1865, 1868, and 1870, the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the US Constitution guaranteed black citizens important freedoms—outlawing slavery, granting universal citizenship and due process, and extended voting rights to all men. But the triumph of the “Reconstruction Amendments” was short-lived. In 1877, the federal government abandoned military Reconstruction in the South, which ushered in almost a century of “Jim Crow” legislation enforcing segregation and inequality. In cases including the Civil Rights Cases of 1883 and *Plessy v. Ferguson* (1896), the Supreme Court supported the constitutionality of discrimination and segregation. Thus the battle for freedom, citizenship, and enfranchisement continued long after the Civil War and Reconstruction. 

Though the [Fifteenth Amendment](https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/sets/the-fifteenth-amendment) extended enfranchisement to every male citizen regardless of race, for decades this right was all but erased by poll taxes, literacy tests, terror, murder, and intimidation aimed at preventing black people from voting. In the 1950s and 1960s, the civil rights movement worked to end these and other racist practices, organizing protests and political actions such as the Montgomery bus boycott (1955-56), the Freedom Rides (1961), the March on Washington (1963), and the Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches (1965), among many others. These years saw legislative and judicial victories, and in 1964, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, which outlawed discrimination based on “race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” The federal government needed to do more to ensure fair voter registration and election procedures across the country, however. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 put in place procedures and overseers to guarantee full enfranchisement for African Americans and people of color. 

Yet the battle for voting rights continues to the present day. Gerrymandering and legislation still perpetuate discriminatory practices. In the 2013 case *Shelby County v. Holder*, the US Supreme Court struck down key parts of the Voting Rights Act, claiming that federal oversight was no longer justified. The sources in this set provide further insight into the context of this important Act: Why was it necessary? What did it do? Have its goals been achieved? 

English

Voting Rights Act of 1965

https://d2jf00asb0fe6y.cloudfront.net/voting-rights-act_10_f5e68eda06c013cd4180db4d77b14ef7.mp4

https://d2jf00asb0fe6y.cloudfront.net/voting-rights-act_10_f5e68eda06c013cd4180db4d77b14ef7.webm

https://d2jf00asb0fe6y.cloudfront.net/voting-rights-act_10_f5e68eda06c013cd4180db4d77b14ef7.ogg

Courtesy of WSB-TV, Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection via Digital Public Library of Georgia.

WSB-TV, excerpt from “Governor Sanders on Voting Rights and Education in Georgia After Meeting with the President,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/d5ccb2003ea13ebe381981b79c500935. 

In this clip, Georgia state officials, particularly the governor, address the upcoming Voting Rights Act. They are defensive towards what they interpret to be federal power overstepping its rightful limits into state laws. 

An excerpt from a television news broadcast in March 1965 in which Carl Sanders, the governor of Georgia, speaks on voting rights.

Cite this item

Tips for Students

Item 10 of 14 in the Primary Source Set Voting Rights Act of 1965