The Voting Rights Act Is Signed

Setting the scene

Selma, Alabama, became a national flashpoint in early 1965 when state troopers attacked marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge on 'Bloody Sunday,' March 7. Martin Luther King Jr. and thousands later completed a march to Montgomery demanding federal protection for voters.

What happened

President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act on August 6, 1965, before a joint session of Congress, invoking 'We shall overcome.' The law banned literacy tests and required federal oversight of elections in states with histories of discrimination.

Why it still matters

Section 5 preclearance reshaped Southern politics until the Supreme Court weakened it in Shelby County v. Holder (2013). Memorable detail: Johnson gave civil-rights leader Roy Wilkins one of the pens used to sign the act; Wilkins later donated it to the NAACP.

Background

Literacy tests and poll taxes were banned in covered states.