The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was a groundbreaking law. America finally had a law that was specifically designed to combat racism and otherwise disenfranchisement at the polls. The main issue that caused the need for the VRA 1965 were laws like the Jim Crow laws. These laws were made to combat the Fifteenth Amendment, which gave African Americans the right to vote. “Even though Blacks were “free” to vote after adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment,14 states continued to deny them the power of the franchise.” (Augustine, Pierre 430) Jim Crow laws and other documentation were passed to force voters to pay a poll tax or take some kind of literacy test to be able to vote. These laws and documentation largely effected the poor and the minorities. Many poor and African American people were unable to afford the poll taxes, and many were also too uneducated to pass a literacy test. Therefore, they were unable to vote. The VRA 1965 was made to combat and put and end to this kind of discrimination at the polls. Many still believe that laws are being put into place to cause a similar effect. Voting laws have been a topic of debate for quite a while now, specifically, voting laws where a voter must present a valid form of photo ID. Some states (Texas, …show more content…
Many otherwise eligible voters lack a government issued, accurate, unexpired photo ID, and they cannot readily acquire one.” (Gilbert 741) Many of the voters affected by these laws tend to be racial minorities. Racial minorities tend to vote democratically and therefore acquisitions of racism and racial profiling seem to sprawl up when talking about these kinds of laws. (Gilbert 741). Senator Ben Cardin called voter ID laws “the Jim Crow laws of our times.” (Cardin, Netroots: The War on Voting) However, many thought this is a gross exaggeration, but it definitely gets the point across about what many others are thinking about these voter ID
Jim Crow Laws, enforced in 1877 in the south, were still being imposed during the 1930s and throughout. These laws created segregation between the two races and created a barrier for the Blacks. For example, even though African Americans were allowed to vote, southern states created a literary test exclusively for them that was quite difficult to pass, since most Blacks were uneducated. However, if they passed the reading test, they were threatened with death. Also, they had to pay a special tax to vote, which many African Americans could not afford.
This led to the passing of the civil rights act and the voting act in the 1964 and 1965. This allowed for the African Americans to have the right to vote.
The voter ID issue starts with certain laws that, in the US, require that a person show a form of official ID before they are allowed to register to vote. This issue has split both Republicans and Democrats. According to Kenneth Jost, “republicans say [voter-ID laws] are needed to prevent fraud and protect the integrity of elections. Democrats say the laws are not needed and are being pushed in order to reduce voting among groups that skew Democratic in elections especially Latinos and African Americans” (Jost, p. 171). Both of these perspectives are valid, and with an open mind, can both sides have important points about the validity and inclusion of elections. On one hand, it is crucial to prevent fraud and keep the elections free of error, otherwise the outcome could be an unfair ruling. On the other side of the argument, voter-ID laws can cause discrimination and prevent people from voting, also
Today, the citizens of the United States must push Congress to formulate an oversight measure to fix voter disenfranchisement. By itself, Supreme Court Ruling Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder does minimal damage to the voting process of the United States. The court ruled discriminatory practices of district actions half a century old unconstitutional, but left a responsibility for Congress to modernize the Voting Rights Act, to ensure that no district nor individual is discriminated against. Given the history of the United States’s voter suppression and the original need for the Voting Rights Act, a new, modern voter equality policy is of dire importance.
Voter Suppression's New Pretext. the New York Times 16 November 2013: A- 19. Print. The.
In 1965, at a time of racial discrimination in America and the emergence of a strong Civil Rights Movement, Congress enacted the Voting Rights Act (VRA), which prohibits discrimination in voting. Congress could not end racial discrimination in voting by suing one jurisdiction, state, etc. at a time, a lot of time. Rather, Congress passed Section 5 of the VRA, which required states and local governments with a history of racially discriminating voting practices to get the approval of the U.S. Attorney General or a three-judge panel for the U.S. District Court for D.C. (“preclearace”) in order to make any changes to their voting practices. Section 4(b) said that the preclearance requirement applied to states and political subdivisions that used a “test or device” to limit voting and in which less than 50% of the population was registered to vote, or voted, in the presidential elections of 1964, 1968, or 1972.
Despite the 14th and 15th constitutional amendments that guarantee citizenship and voting right regardless of race and religion, southern states, in practice, denied African Americans the right to vote by setting up literacy tests and charging a poll tax that was designed only to disqualify them as voters. In 1955, African Americans still had significantly less political power than their white counterparts. As a result, they were powerless to prevent the white from segregating all aspects of their lives and could not stop racial discrimination in public accommodations, education, and economic opportunities. Following the 1954 Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, it remained a hot issue in 1955. That year, however, it was the murder of the fourteen-year-old Emmett Louis Till that directed the nation’s attention to the racial discrimination in America.
The issues surrounding the voter ID law have been shrouded in controversy. The voter ID law is a law that require voters to show a valid form of photo identification before receiving a ballot to vote. It has been said to protect the integrity of the electoral ballots, but many feel as though the voter ID law was made to favor those who are more conservative than those who are more liberal in their view on the government. This may be due to the fact that polling stations will only accept valid government issued photo IDs and weapons permits, not including college IDs. This new law also may be disenfranchising towards minorities. Many are calling it a poll tax on minority voters, creating an unconstitutional burden on the right to vote. Others
The wave of new voting restrictions passed around the country, mostly by Republicans, after their victories in the 2010 elections. Supporters of the law argue that such restrictions are necessary to prevent fraud. On the other hand, voting law opponents contend these laws disproportionately affect elderly, minority and low-income groups that tend to vote Democratic. Obtaining photo ID can be costly and burdensome because photo ID laws create a new "financial barrier to the ballot box”. It would have prevented hundreds of thousands of Hispanic voters from the polls just because they lack a state-issued photo ID.
One of the basic rights African Americans struggled to obtain was the right to vote. In 1870, the 15th Amendment was ratified. The amendment stated that “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” (U.S. Constitution). As this was thought as a victory, it was soon to be seen that it was anything but. White men in the nation saw this as a threat and improvised new ways to prevent African Americans to vote such as the installment of poll taxes, literacy test, and the “grandfather clause”. In Litwin’s book, Fighting for the Right to Vote, Litwin explains how Mississippi Delta activist, Fannie Lou Hamer assisted other African Americans in registering to vote and helping them gain a voice in the movement. Voting was not the only place where African Americans fell short of capabilities. Due to Jim Crow laws, African Americans could not do such basic things as ride first-class passenger on a primarily white train or a bus. A lady known as Rosa Parks in the neighboring state of Alabama found herself facing charges when she refused to give up her seat on the bus during the time of the movement. The Jim Crow laws were created to prevent African Americans from making any advancements that could potentially threaten white
The United States changed as a nation because of the Civil Rights Movement. Especially, the United States notched up as a more perfect union. The Civil Rights Movement secured voting rights for African-Americans and called for the ending racial segregation, discrimination and segregation. After years of struggle and upheaval, it resulted in the enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, under the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson. The purpose of the act was to protect African-Americans’ voting rights and overcome legal barriers that prevented them from exercising their rights to vote. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was a historic triumph as it helped the nation acknowledge the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which granted equal voting rights to all but which goal remained unfulfilled for the next several decades. Therefore, The Voting Rights Act of 1965 banned
Voter ID laws in the United States have begun to create controversy since the beginning of its adaptations in the early 2000’s. Voter ID laws in the United States is a law that requires U.S. citizens to have a special form of identification in order to vote in an election. The idea with Voter ID laws is that the state must make sure that the laws do not pose any sort of burden on the voters. These laws have been proposed in order to stop voting fraud. However, the institution of Voter ID laws has caused trouble in states, including Texas, regarding the various amount of identification requirements needed.
The laws undermined the thirteenth, fourteenth,and fifteenth amendments. The thirteenth amendment completely abolished slavery.The fourteenth amendment stated that all people born or naturalized in America were American citizens, even African Americans and former slaves. The fifteenth amendment stated that people could not be denied the right to vote no matter their race, color, or former condition of servitude. States, especially those in the south, started passing laws that pushed African Americans down into second class. Southern states soon made the Grandfather Clause, all voters must pay a poll tax, take a literacy and property test, and an understanding clause. They were able to do this by saying it was to disqualify the the poor and unintelligence people from voting.
Voter ID laws eliminate all forms of voter fraud and restore integrity to elections, Government-issued photo IDs are inexpensive and easy to obtain, and voter ID laws don’t restrict the right to vote and restore confidence to voters. To begin with, what is voter fraud? Voter fraud is the illegal obstruction of an election. Voter fraud is composed of double voting, intimidation, undocumented citizens voting, tampering with electronic or paper ballots, as well as deceased voting. Some opponents, such as Attorney General Eric Holder, suggest that there is not a problem with voter fraud.
It had finally led to an end of the illegal barriers under the 15th Amendment and allowed African Americans to vote without any knowledge or character test. Johnson stated, “For years and years they had been tried and tried and tried and they had failed and failed and failed. And the time for failure is gone” (Johnson). The statistics showed a large increase of African Americans in each state in the South in 1966. By 1970, over a million African Americans had registered to vote by (Quoted in “Victory for Voters”). The Voting Rights Act not only allowed African Americans to vote, but it also opened up many new opportunities for them. After all, Lyndon Johnson had successfully achieved his main goal to get many supporters from the south and it changed the nation towards a positive direction after the