What was the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and why was it significant to the civil rights movement?

This text is provided as background information for A Documents-Based Lesson on the Voting Rights Act: A Case Study of SNCC’s work in Lowndes County and the Emergence of Black Power by Emilye Crosby.

The Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act addressed distinct forms of racial discrimination.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (signed into law on July 2, 1964) was, in part, a response to demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama, led by Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR), and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The protests highlighted segregation in downtown stores and the employment discrimination against African Americans, who were limited to menial jobs in local businesses and excluded from public sector jobs, like police officers. President John Kennedy, who first sent the text of a civil rights bill to Congress, hoped that banning segregation in public accommodations would end nonviolent direct action and move the movement into the legal arena. The Civil Rights Act that passed Congress in July 1964 did ban segregation in public accommodations. It also acknowledged how little had been accomplished in desegregating schools in the decade after the Brown decision and gave the federal government the authority to withhold federal funds from schools that failed to desegregate. One of the most important aspects of the Civil Rights Act was its ban on employment discrimination based on an “individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” This legislation has been very significant for African Americans and women of all races. It gave a real boost to what became the Women’s Liberation Movement and is an important element of our country’s stand against discrimination.

The Civil Rights Act did little to address the rampant discrimination in voting rights, however, so civil rights organizations pushed hard for what became the Voting Rights Act. Signed into law on Aug. 6, 1965, the Voting Rights Act banned literacy tests and other barriers to Black voting. It gave the federal government the authority to send federal registrars and observers to register new voters and oversee elections. It also required pre-clearance of new election-related legislation in specific locations (states, primarily) with a history of voting rights discrimination. Poll taxes were eliminated in federal elections through the 24th Amendment and in state elections through a 1966 Supreme Court decision, Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections.

These are some of the most significant aspects of these critical laws. I highlight these with students and then compare them to the issues African Americans faced (drawn from various documents) to lead a discussion of how the CRA/VRA did and didn’t address these problems immediately and how this legislation could be used over time to address entrenched inequality.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 offered African Americans a way to circumvent state and local barriers that prevented them from exercising their 15th Amendment right to vote. After the act was signed into law by LBJ, Congress amended it five more times to expand its scope and offer more protections. This law has been called one of the most effective pieces of civil rights legislation ever enacted by the Department of Justice. Its gutting by the Shelby County v. Holder decision in 2013 led to more restrictive voting laws in at least 7 states.

What was the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and why was it significant to the civil rights movement?
Sections 4(b) and 5 of the Voting Rights Act were by Shelby County decision. Section 4(b) contained a coverage formula that encompassed the most pervasively discriminatory jurisdictions and held them liable to special provisions within the Voting Rights Act.  This ensured that previously-barred minorities within those jurisdictions would be protected and able to practice their right to vote. The coverage formula was always considered controversial because it singled out specific jurisdictions, most of which were in the Deep South. In Shelby County, the Supreme Court declared the coverage formula unconstitutional because it used outdated criteria and thus violated principles of equal state sovereignty and federalism. Other special provisions that were dependent on the coverage formula, such as the Section 5 pre-clearance requirement remained valid law, but without a valid coverage formula these provisions became unenforceable. The pre-clearance requirement meant jurisdictions that fell under 4(b) had to get federal approval for any changes they attempted to make in their election laws. With the removal of this requirement, states with a history of discriminatory behavior could now make changes without federal approval. 

Notable Supreme Court Cases:
What was the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and why was it significant to the civil rights movement?

  • Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. ___ (2013) - in this case, the Court held that section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was unconstitutional because the formula used to determine coverage was based on data that was 40 years old, and no longer representative of current needs. This caused a ripple effect among several states, such as Alabama, Arizona, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, and Wisconsin, all of whom have passed more restrictive voter ID laws that removed online voter registration, early voting, same-day registration, and pre-registration for teens about to turn 18. 

Selected Library Resources:

  • Charles S. Bullock III, et al., The Rise and Fall of the Voting Rights Act, KF4891 .B85 2016
  • Gary May, Bending Toward Justice: The Voting Rights Act and the Transformation of American Democracy, KF4893 .M39 2013
  • Dara N. Byrne, ed., The Unfinished Agenda of the Selma-Montgomery Voting Rights March, F334. S4 U54 2005
  • Ari Berman, Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America, JK1846 .B47 2015

White men, age 21 and older, who owned property were given the right to vote in 1776.

The 15th Amendment to the Constitution removed racial barriers to voting in 1870, but states continued to practice voter discrimination and continued to deny Black voters a chance to participate in elections.

The right to vote was extended to white women in 1920.

It wasn't until 1965, after years of intimidation, murders, and advocacy that the path to the voting booth was cleared for Black people with the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The right to vote, regardless of race

Just eight days after Martin Luther King, Jr. led a peaceful civil rights march in Selma, Alabama, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced his intention to pass a federal Voting Rights Act to ensure that no federal, state, or local government could in any way impede people from voting because of their race or ethnicity. He signed the Voting Rights Act into law later that year, banning racial discriminatory practices in voting, including literacy tests.

Provisions of the Voting Rights Act

Originally, legislators hoped that within five years of its passage, the issues surrounding the 1965 Voting Rights Act would be resolved and there would be no further need for its enforcement-related provisions. They were wrong. Congress had to extend these provisions in 1970, 1975, 1982 and most recently in 2007, this time for 25 years.

Enforcement measures included:

  • Requirements for certain jurisdictions with a history of disenfranchising voters to obtain approval or "preclearance" from the U.S. Department of Justice or the U.S/ District Court in D.C. before they can make any changes to voting practices or procedures. They must prove that the proposed change does not denying or infringe on the right to vote on account of race or color.
  • Requirements for certain jurisdictions to provide language assistance to voters in communities where there is a concentration of citizens who do aren't proficient in English to actively participate in the electoral process. This provision was added to the Voting Rights Act in 1975.
  • Federal election examiners and observers for certain jurisdictions where there is evidence of attempts to intimidate minority voters at the polls.

It is wrong, deadly wrong, to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country. There is no issue of states rights or national rights, there is only the struggle for human rights.

- President Lyndon B. Johnson (1965)

What was the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and why was it significant to the civil rights movement?

Bob Fitch photography archive, © Stanford University Libraries

On 6 August 1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law, calling the day “a triumph for freedom as huge as any victory that has ever been won on any battlefield” (Johnson, “Remarks in the Capitol Rotunda”). The law came seven months after Martin Luther King launched a Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) campaign based in Selma, Alabama, with the aim of pressuring Congress to pass such legislation.

“In Selma,” King wrote, “we see a classic pattern of disenfranchisement typical of the Southern Black Belt areas where Negroes are in the majority” (King, “Selma—The Shame and the Promise”). In addition to facing arbitrary literacy tests and poll taxes, African Americans in Selma and other southern towns were intimidated, harassed, and assaulted when they sought to register to vote. Civil rights activists met with fierce resistance to their campaign, which attracted national attention on 7 March 1965, when civil rights workers were brutally attacked by white law enforcement officers on a march from Selma to Montgomery.

Johnson introduced the Voting Rights Act that same month, “with the outrage of Selma still fresh” (Johnson, “Remarks in the Capitol Rotunda”). In just over four months, Congress passed the bill. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 abolished literacy tests and poll taxes designed to disenfranchise African American voters and gave the federal government the authority to take over voter registration in counties with a pattern of persistent discrimination. “This law covers many pages,” Johnson said before signing the bill, “but the heart of the act is plain. Wherever, by clear and objective standards, States and counties are using regulations, or laws, or tests to deny the right to vote, then they will be struck down” (Johnson, “Remarks in the Capitol Rotunda”).

On the same day Johnson signed the bill, he announced that his attorney general, Nicholas Katzenbach, would initiate lawsuits against four states that still required a poll tax to register. Although King called the law “a great step forward in removing all of the remaining obstacles to the right to vote,” he knew that the ballot would only be an effective tool for social change if potential voters rid themselves of the fear associated with voting (King, 5 August 1965). To meet this goal and “rid the American body politic of racism,” SCLC developed its Political Education and Voter Registration Department (King, “Annual Report”).