The Voting Rights Act of 1965

Signed by President Johnson in August 1965, the Voting Rights Act outlawed the racial discrimination in voting that had persisted in many states despite the Fifteenth Amendment. It is the most successful piece of civil rights legislation in American history.

The Fifteenth Amendment, ratified in 1870, declared that the right to vote could not be denied on account of race. For nearly a century, much of the country ignored it. Southern states erected an elaborate machinery of disenfranchisement, including literacy tests, poll taxes, grandfather clauses, white primaries, and outright intimidation. By the early 1960s, Black voter registration in some Southern counties remained under five percent. The brutality police inflicted on civil rights marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma in March 1965 made the case for federal action overwhelming. President Johnson addressed Congress days later and called for a voting rights bill. The Voting Rights Act passed both chambers within months. Its central provisions worked together. Section 2 created a permanent nationwide ban on voting practices that discriminate on the basis of race. Section 4 set a coverage formula identifying states and counties with histories of disenfranchisement. Section 5 required those jurisdictions to obtain federal preclearance before changing any voting practice. Federal examiners could be sent to register voters in covered areas. The effect was immediate. Black voter registration in the Deep South more than doubled within five years. The act was reauthorized several times with overwhelming bipartisan support, most recently in 2006 for 25 years. The Supreme Court's decision in Shelby County v. Holder in 2013 struck down the coverage formula in Section 4, suspending the preclearance requirement until Congress writes a new formula. Congress has not done so. Section 2 remains in force and continues to be the basis for most voting rights litigation.