Civil Rights Leaders
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VOTING RIGHT ACT
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law on August 6, 1965,
after 5 months of hard ache for the civil rights community. President Johnson
signed it into law in presence of Martin Luther King, and other civil rights
leaders. The president called the Voting Rights Act " one of the most
monumental laws in the entire history of American freedom." The signing
ceremony took place in the President's Room of the Capitol rotunda where
President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation 104 years
earlier. The President also said," The vote is the most powerful instrument
ever devised by man for breaking down injustice different from other men."
This Act still did not give blacks the opportunity to participate freely
in local and national elections. Blacks started as soon as possible registered
in large numbers; they started electing their own representatives-sheriffs,
state legislature, and etc. One year after the voting in Dallas County voted
Sheriff Jim Clark out of office. The Black's now had the opportunity to vote
that they would help better he citizens of the community and state.
TITLE
I
Voting
Rights
Sec.
101 (2). No person acting under color of law shall-
(A)
in determining whether any individual is qualified under State law or laws to
vote in any Federal election, apply any standard, practice, or procedure
different form the standards, practices, or procedures applied under such law or
laws to other individuals within the same county, parish, or similar political
subdivision who have been found by State officials to be qualified to vote; . .
. .
(C) employ any literacy test as a qualification for voting in any Federal election unless (i) such test is administered to each individual wholly in writing; and (ii) a certified copy of the test and of the answers given by the individual is furnished to him within twenty-five days of the submission of his request made within the period of time during which records and papers are required to be retained and preserved pursuant to Title III of the Civil Rights Act of 1960. . . .