On August 6, 1965, during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, President Lyndon Johnson signed The Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibited racial discrimination in voting. Although the Fifteenth Amendment had already given male African American citizens the right to vote, many Southern states had various forms of intimidation and violence, including literacy tests, to suppress their vote. The Voting Rights Act finally provided a means to fight voter restrictions and encourage more African Americans to go to the polls.
Since its passing, the Voting Rights Act has been viewed as one of the most important pieces of legislation in American history. Looking back at it now, did the Voting Rights Act meet the goals that it had set? Is voter suppression still a problem today? If so, what methods are now used to fight it? If not, how does the country now guarantee that all citizens can have an equal say in the government?
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