Question

The voting rights act of 1965 did not end discrimination but what did it do

Answer 1

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting.[7][8] It was signed into law by PresidentLyndon B. Johnson during the height of the Civil Rights Movement on August 6, 1965, and Congress later amended the Act five times to expand its protections.[7] Designed to enforce the voting rights guaranteed by the Fourteenthand Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, the Act secured the right to vote for racial minorities throughout the country, especially in the South. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the Act is considered to be the most effective piece of federal civil rights legislation ever enacted in the country.[9]

Voting Rights Act of 1965Long titleAn act to enforce the fifteenth amendment of the Constitution of the United States, and for other purposes.Acronyms (colloquial)VRANicknamesVoting Rights ActEnacted bythe 89th United States CongressEffectiveAugust 6, 1965CitationsPublic law89-110Statutes at Large79 Stat. 437CodificationTitles amended52—Voting and ElectionsU.S.C. sections created

52 U.S.C. § 10101
52 U.S.C. §§ 10301–10314
52 U.S.C. §§ 10501–10508

52 U.S.C. §§ 10701–10702Legislative history

Introduced in the Senate as S. 1564 by Mike Mansfield (D–MT) and Everett Dirksen (R–IL) on March 17, 1965

Committee consideration by Judiciary

Passed the Senate on May 26, 1965 (77-19)

Passed the House with amendment on July 9, 1965 (333–85)

Reported by the joint conference committee on July 29, 1965; agreed to by the House onAugust 3, 1965 (328–74) and by the Senate on August 4, 1965 (79–18)

Signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on August 6, 1965

Major amendments

Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1970[1]

Voting Rights Act of 1965, Amendments of 1975[2]

Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1982[3]

Voting Rights Language Assistance Act of 1992[4]

Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, Coretta Scott King, César E. Chávez, Barbara C. Jordan, William C. Velásquez, and Dr. Hector P. Garcia Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006[5][6]

United States Supreme Court casesSouth Carolina v. Katzenbach (1966)
Katzenbach v. Morgan (1966)
Allen v. State Board of Elections (1969)
Oregon v. Mitchell (1970)
Beer v. United States (1976)
City of Rome v. United States (1980)
City of Mobile v. Bolden (1980)
Thornburg v. Gingles (1986)
Growe v. Emison (1993)
Voinovich v. Quilter (1993)
Shaw v. Reno (1993)
Holder v. Hall (1994)
Johnson v. De Grandy (1994)
Miller v. Johnson (1995)
Bush v. Vera (1996)
Lopez v. Monterey County (1999)
Reno v. Bossier Parish School Board (2000)
Georgia v. Ashcroft (2003)
League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry(2006)
Bartlett v. Strickland (2009)
Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No. 1 v. Holder (2009)
Shelby County v. Holder (2013)

The Act contains numerous provisions that regulate elections. The Act's "general provisions" provide nationwide protections for voting rights. Section 2 is a general provision that prohibits every state and local government from imposing any voting law that results in discrimination against racial or language minorities. Other general provisions specifically outlaw literacy tests and similar devices that were historically used to disenfranchise racial minorities.

The Act also contains "special provisions" that apply to only certain jurisdictions. A core special provision is the Section 5 preclearance requirement, which prohibits certain jurisdictions from implementing any change affecting voting without receiving preapproval from the U.S. Attorney General or the U.S. District Court for D.C. that the change does not discriminate against protected minorities.[10] Another special provision requires jurisdictions containing significant language minority populations to provide bilingual ballots and other election materials.

Section 5 and most other special provisions apply to jurisdictions encompassed by the "coverage formula" prescribed in Section 4(b). The coverage formula was originally designed to encompass jurisdictions that engaged in egregious voting discrimination in 1965, and Congress updated the formula in 1970 and 1975. In Shelby County v. Holder (2013), the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the coverage formula as unconstitutional, reasoning that it was no longer responsive to current conditions.[11] The Court did not strike down Section 5, but without a coverage formula, Section 5 is unenforceable.[12]

Answer 2

The Voting Rights Act of 1965, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote as guaranteed under the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.