The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
WHY IT WAS NEEDED: To combat discriminatory voting practices in the South, such as literacy tests and poll taxes, which disproportionately affected African Americans and denied them their constitutional right to vote.
WHAT IT DID: By the end of 1965, a quarter of a million new Black voters had been registered. The law immediately decreased racial discrimination in voting. As a result, the Act allowed a political realignment of the Democratic and Republican parties. After Johnson signed the Act into law, newly enfranchised Black voters began to push the Democratic Party to the left throughout the South; this in turn pushed Southern white conservatives to move from the Democratic to Republican party. This caused the Democratic Party to become more liberal and the Republican Party to become more conservative.
Research shows that the Act successfully increased voter turnout and voter registration, especially among African Americans. The impacts were increases in public goods and services including public education for areas with higher Black populations together with more members of Congress representative of minority voters.
WHAT CHANGED LAST MONTH: The Supreme Court struck down a key provision in the Voting Rights Act that had been preventing racial discrimination in voting. In asserting that districts cannot be drawn with any one population demographic in mind, states are free to change voter districts in a way that disenfranchises minority populations, with impacts on all of our voting rights
WHAT CAN YOU DO?: Stand with our brothers and sisters in advocating to restore their protections against being disenfranchised by this retrograde action. Write letters, make phone calls, and do whatever you can.
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