One of America's most important civil rights laws was signed 50 years ago today
The seeds of The Voting Rights Act were planted in the decade before it was signed into law. African-Americans began to fight their disenfranchisement by the government during the American Civil Rights movement. Here, Rosa Parks was arrested in 1956 for failing to give up her seat on a Montgomery city bus.
Schools were also battle grounds for fighting systemic racism. The "Little Rock Nine" were a group of nine black students who attempted to enter the racially segregated Little Rock Central High School in 1957. President Dwight. D. Eisenhower deployed federal troops to safely escort the students into the high school.
Members of the Little Rock, Arkansas community protested and tried to physically block the students from entering the school. Here, an unidentified while male punches an effigy of a black student.
Tension hit a fever pitch in 1963 when nonviolent students protesting segregation were met with violence and arrests by the local Birmingham police.
High-pressured water hoses and attack dogs were unleashed on the protesters in what is now referred to as The Birmingham Campaign.
Lunch counter sit-ins swept the US as African-Americans demanded desegregation of public facilities.
As for voting, many counties enforced voting discrimination using various tactics such as "misplacing" the voting registration of racial minorities.
In June 1963 President John F. Kennedy issued a civil rights speech that contained the origins of the Civil Rights Act. In it, he called for equal access to public areas for all people, regardless of race.
In August 1963, approximately 250,000 people took to the streets to participate in the March on Washington.
The march is one of the most celebrated acts of civic participation in pursuit of equal rights in the US. Below, Austin Brown, 9, of Gainesville, Georgia at the March on Washington 1963.
The Civil Rights Act was signed into law by President Johnson on July 2, 1964.
The law banned discrimination based on race, religion, gender, and nationality.
But passage of the law didn't immediately eradicate institutional racism and discrimination. Civil rights activists continued to fight state-sanctioned abuse through protests and marches. Below, state police attack protesters on their Selma to Montgomery march.
The march became known as Bloody Sunday, as police attacked unarmed marchers, and murdered civil rights activist James Reeb.
Televised footage of the violence horrified watchers and helped to expedite passage of the Voting Rights Act in Congress.
The Voting Rights Act was introduced in Congress in March and signed into law on August 6, 1965.
The act has been amended several times since 1965 to further expand its protections. Here, President Ronald Reagan signs a 1982 version of the act.
The Supreme Court largely gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013, though.
Popular Right Now
Advertisement