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Voters Rights Workshops

The Voting Act was signed into law on Aug 6, 1965, by President Lyndon Johnson.  It outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting.  It was to enforce the fifteenth amendment, the Constitution, and also the appointment of Federal examiners. 

 

The law had an immediate impact.  By the end of 1965, a quarter of a million new black voters had been registered, one-third by Federal examiners. By the end of 1966, only 4 out of the 13 southern states had fewer than 50 percent of African Americans registered to vote.  The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was readopted and strengthened in 1970, 1975, and 1982. 

 

                                   

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