Voting Rights Act of 1965
By U.S. Congress
The federal law that prohibited racial discrimination in voting, eliminating literacy tests and other barriers that had prevented Black Americans from exercising their constitutional right to vote.
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What Is the Voting Rights Act of 1965?
The federal law that prohibited racial discrimination in voting, eliminating literacy tests and other barriers that had prevented Black Americans from exercising their constitutional right to vote.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is one of the most powerful laws ever passed in the United States. It was signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on August 6, 1965, and its purpose was clear and historic: to make sure that no American could be stopped from voting because of their race. For the first time since Reconstruction, the federal government stepped in with real force to protect the constitutional right to vote for Black Americans across the South. For nearly 100 years after the 15th Amendment gave Black men the right to vote in 1870, Southern states had used cruel and clever tactics to keep Black citizens away from the polls. Literacy tests asked impossible questions. Poll taxes charged fees that poor families could not afford. Registrars — the officials in charge of voter sign-up — simply turned Black applicants away, threatened their jobs, or had them arrested. In Selma, Alabama in 1965, only 2% of eligible Black voters were registered, even though Black residents made up a large share of the population. The road to this law ran through the streets of Selma. On March 7, 1965 — a day known as Bloody Sunday — hundreds of peaceful marchers crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge. State troopers attacked them with clubs and tear gas while television cameras rolled. Millions of Americans watching at home were shocked. Within eight days, President Johnson stood before a joint session of Congress and spoke the words of the civil rights movement: 'We shall overcome.' He called for voting rights legislation immediately. The results were transformative. The Voting Rights Act banned literacy tests and other discriminatory practices. It sent federal officials directly into counties where Black citizens had been blocked from registering. Within months of the law's passage, the number of registered Black voters in the South more than doubled. By 1970, nearly 700,000 Black Americans had newly registered across the South. John Lewis, who had been beaten on that bridge and later served 33 years as a congressman, called it 'the most important piece of legislation of the 20th century.'
Historical Context
After the Civil War ended in 1865, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were added to the Constitution. The 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, stated that no citizen could be denied the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude. For a short time during Reconstruction, Black men voted in large numbers, and several were elected to Congress. But when Reconstruction ended in 1877 and federal troops withdrew, Southern states began passing laws designed to cancel out the 15th Amendment. Poll taxes, literacy tests, grandfather clauses — which only allowed voting if your grandfather had voted, an impossible standard for formerly enslaved people — and white-only primaries were all used to drive Black voters away from the polls. By the early 20th century, Black voter registration in many Southern states had fallen to near zero. The civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s made voting rights a central cause. Organizations like the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) launched voter registration drives across the Deep South at enormous personal risk. Activists were beaten, fired from their jobs, evicted from their homes, and murdered for trying to help Black citizens register. In Mississippi in 1964, only 6.7% of eligible Black citizens were registered. Freedom Summer that year brought hundreds of volunteers south to register voters, and three of them — James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner — were murdered by Klan members with the help of local law enforcement. The events in Selma, Alabama in early 1965 brought the crisis to a national breaking point. The Dallas County Voters League and SNCC had been working in Selma for years, facing constant resistance from Sheriff Jim Clark. After the murder of young activist Jimmie Lee Jackson by a state trooper in February 1965, movement leaders planned a march from Selma to Montgomery to demand voting rights. The brutal attack on marchers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 7, broadcast on national television, created enormous public pressure on Congress to act. President Johnson, who had already signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, seized the moment to push for landmark voting rights legislation.
Key Excerpts
Important passages from this primary source, presented in kid-friendly language.
"No voting qualification or prerequisite to voting or standard, practice, or procedure shall be imposed or applied by any State or political subdivision to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color."
What this means: This is the heart of the entire law. It says that no state or local government can use any rule, test, or procedure to prevent American citizens from voting because of their race. This one sentence made illegal everything from literacy tests to impossible registration requirements that had been used for decades to keep Black Americans from the polls.
"The Congress finds that the requirement of the payment of a poll tax as a precondition to voting (i) precludes persons of limited means from voting or imposes unreasonable financial hardship upon such persons as a precondition to their exercise of the franchise..."
What this means: In this section of the law, Congress recognized that requiring people to pay a fee to vote was an unfair burden that hurt poor citizens the most. Many Southern Black families, kept in poverty by generations of discrimination, simply could not afford a poll tax. This passage directed the U.S. Attorney General to go to court and challenge remaining state poll taxes — a process that led to the Supreme Court striking down state poll taxes entirely in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections (1966).
"Whenever the Attorney General institutes a proceeding under any statute to enforce the guarantees of the fifteenth amendment in any State, the court shall authorize the appointment of Federal examiners..."
What this means: This section gave the federal government real enforcement power. Federal examiners — government officials — could be sent directly into counties that were blocking Black voter registration. This was not just a statement of values; it was a practical enforcement tool. States could no longer simply ignore the law.
"The Congress declares that the purpose of this Act is to enforce the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States."
What this means: This opening declaration is powerful in its simplicity. Congress admitted that the 15th Amendment, passed 95 years earlier, had never truly been enforced in many parts of the country. This law was an acknowledgment that the promise of the amendment had been broken — and a commitment to finally make it real.
"No person acting under color of law shall fail or refuse to permit any person to vote who is entitled to vote under any provision of this Act or is otherwise qualified to vote..."
What this means: This section directly targeted the registrars, sheriff's deputies, and other local officials who had physically blocked Black citizens from voting. 'Acting under color of law' means acting as a government official. Those officials now faced federal criminal penalties if they refused to allow qualified citizens to vote.
Vocabulary Spotlight
Key words and phrases from this primary source.
Franchise
The right to vote in public elections
Literacy Test
A test of reading and writing ability used in many Southern states as a requirement to register to vote. The tests were applied unfairly — Black applicants were often given impossible questions while white applicants were waved through.
Poll Tax
A fee that citizens were required to pay in order to vote. The 24th Amendment (1964) had already abolished poll taxes in federal elections. The Voting Rights Act (Section 10) then directed the U.S. Attorney General to challenge state poll taxes in court, and the Supreme Court struck down remaining state poll taxes in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections (1966).
Preclearance
A requirement in Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act that states with histories of voting discrimination had to get advance approval — 'clearance' — from the federal government before changing any of their voting laws.
Disenfranchisement
The act of taking away or preventing someone's right to vote
Federal Examiner
A federal government official authorized by the Voting Rights Act to go into counties with histories of discrimination and directly oversee voter registration
Reauthorization
The process by which Congress votes to extend a law that was originally passed for a limited time period
Suffrage
The right to vote in political elections; the exercise of that right
Impact & Legacy
Watch and Learn
Did You Know?
Only 2% in Selma
In Selma, Alabama in 1965, only about 335 out of approximately 15,000 eligible Black voters — roughly 2% — were registered to vote. Meanwhile, nearly all eligible white voters in the county were registered. This stark inequality was the direct motivation for the Selma voting rights marches and the push for federal legislation.
John Lewis Carried the Law in His Blood
John Lewis, beaten by police on Bloody Sunday while leading marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, later became a U.S. Congressman from Georgia. He served for 33 years and called the Voting Rights Act 'the most important piece of legislation of the 20th century.' He was one of the living bridges between the march at Selma and the halls of Congress.
Pens for History
President Johnson used dozens of special pens to sign the Voting Rights Act into law, then gave them to civil rights leaders as keepsakes. He gave one of the pens to Martin Luther King Jr. and another to John Lewis — the man who had been beaten for the very cause this law was meant to protect.
Reauthorized Across Decades
The Voting Rights Act has been renewed by Congress four times — in 1970, 1975, 1982, and 2006 — making it one of the most repeatedly reaffirmed laws in American history. The 2006 renewal passed the Senate with a vote of 98 to 0, showing strong bipartisan support for its protections.
700,000 New Voters
The impact of the Voting Rights Act was immediate and measurable. By 1970, nearly 700,000 Black Americans who had previously been blocked from the polls had registered to vote in the South. In Mississippi alone, Black voter registration jumped from 6.7% in 1964 to 59.8% in 1967 — one of the fastest political transformations in American history.
A Near-Unanimous Vote
When Congress passed the Voting Rights Act in 1965, the vote was lopsided in favor. The Senate approved the bill 77 to 19, and the House approved it 333 to 85. Both parties cast votes for and against, but the overwhelming majority recognized that the federal government had a responsibility to protect the right to vote for every citizen.
Related Events
Landmark events connected to this primary source.
Related Primary Sources
Other important documents and speeches in Black history.
July 2, 1964 · Legislation
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The landmark federal law that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, ending legal segregation and transforming American society.
February 3, 1870 · Constitutional Amendment
15th Amendment to the Constitution
The amendment that prohibited denying the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude, though enforcement would take another century of struggle.
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