NATION: On Tuesday, US President Joe Biden joined with other officials at the White House in a moment of reflection on events that transpired 60 years ago during the administration of Lyndon B Johnson. In that year, some of the U.S. most historical event were established involving the Voting Rights Act. Today, as the anniversary of the VRA is celebrated, Washington acknowledges how Johnson’s signing ofthe Act “…moved the nation forward.”
By Michelle Crawford-Sapenter
“...For it is not enough just to give men rights. They must be able to use those rights in their personal pursuit of happiness. The wounds and the weaknesses.”—Fmr. US President Lyndon Bains Johnson
Today, while the Voting Rights Act is a law that states the rights of the American public to vote, Johnson signed the Act as a measure establishing the alleviation of racial discrimination in voting in America. The problem with preserving fairness in voting continues to plague the nation, particularly in southern states.
While the Voting Rights Act has undergone alterations five times since its signing in 1965, there have been continual confrontations that have attempted to inhibit voting by blacks. One of the most historical events occurred on Sunday, March 7 1965, when, then, political activist, John Lewis led 600 across the Edmund Pettus Bridge from Montgomery to Selma, Alabama. The March was conducted as a protest demonstrating the black citizen’s demand that in Alabama they, too, reserved the right to vote and be come registered in the state Capitol.
The 600 were met with police, who beat them with billy clubs, large dogs that attacked and fire hoses that were sprayed to push back at their efforts to reach the state court house. The day, displaying an event that led up to the signing ofthe VRA was thereafter known as Bloody Sunday.
VOTING RIGHTS AMENDMENTS SINCE 1965: 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]
Today, following the numerous revisions made in the VRA, the Act contains General revisions providing nationwide protection for voting rights outlaws literacy tests, prohibits certain jurisdictions from imposing changes without the confirmation by the US Attornry General or the US District Attorney for DC to ensure that no discrimination in conducted against protected minorities and “prohibits state and local government from imposing any voting rule that "results in the denial or abridgement of the right of any citizen to vote on account of race or color" or membership in a language minority group.”
In 2021, recorded as the most recent, adjustments to the Voting Rights Act Section 2 resulted in the responses to the ruling that stated the "totality of circumstances" which was interpreted to indicate that it does not generally prohibit on voting rules that have “ disparate impact…” on groups that must be protected. The new rule eliminated Section 5 stating that it tended to establish some fears —that without proof of evidence—and based on the past violation, that fraud might occur.
Despite the legislation THST has been addressed by the federal government, the effects of gerrymandering on the state by state level have continued to impose forms of surreptitious discrimination. A majority of the voting district maps revised by the Republican Partynin southern states, the revisions are meant to ensure that certain districts are reserved for electing Republican candidates. In Washington, Democrats continue to address the unfairness in the recent gerrymandering that has discriminately altered voting district maps
Today, as the anniversary of the VRA is recognized, the hope of many is that the basic statutes written into the Voting Rights Act would continue to “make America more fair, just and consistent with the founding principles.”
The laws that were signed by US President Lyndon Johnson in 1965 we’re laws that “… preserve tge right to vote, as Johnson stated. Today, US President Joe Biden states that the Voting Rights Act is an historical legacy that while by it much has been accomplished, however, “…there is still more work to be done.”
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