VOTING RIGHTS ACT

Submitted by Admin on

This week marks the very important and serious 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. But its not all peaches and cream at the polls. By 1965 concerted efforts to break the grip of state disfranchisement had been under way for some time, but had achieved only modest success overall and in some areas had proved almost entirely ineffectual. The murder of voting-rights activists in Philadelphia, Mississippi, gained national attention, along with numerous other acts of violence and terrorism.

Finally, the unprovoked attack on March 7, 1965, by state troopers on peaceful marchers crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, en route to the state capitol in Montgomery, persuaded the President and Congress to overcome Southern legislators' resistance to effective voting rights legislation. President Johnson issued a call for a strong voting rights law and hearings began soon thereafter on the bill that would become the Voting Rights Act.

The Voting Rights Act: When is a new voter law unconstitutional? http://econ.st/1IRfMjM via @TheEconomist

Sen. Cory Booker Fears 'Voting Rights Act Is Under Threat' - ABC News http://abcn.ws/1MeSHgg via @ABC

Obama celebrates 50th anniversary of Voting Rights Act http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/obama-celebrates-50th-anniversary-of-voti…

Happy birthday to the Voting Rights Act http://wpo.st/Zq0U0

Fifty Years On, LBJ’s Voting Rights Act Is Under Attack: http://www.newsweek.com/fifty-years-lbjs-voting-rights-act-under-attack…