Many women and African American men had long dreamed to have the right to vote. In many states, they could only vote if their state allowed them the privilege. The dedicated men and women fought for their right to vote in the Civil Rights Movement in the early and mid 1900s. Congress passed the Fifteenth Amendment and the Voting Rights Act to give African Americans the rights to vote. It would have not occurred if the Civil Rights Movement had not taken place. The Nineteenth Amendment would not have occurred either if not for the Civil Rights Movement. The freedom to vote is now held by a majority because of the fight by the people involved in the Civil Rights Movement, and the African Americans and women who fought for their right to vote. The Civil Rights Movement, an intensely rough time for many, led to the freedom of voting rights. The History Reference Center states that throughout a majority of America’s history, property owners and tax paying white men withheld the right to vote only. Men, of other ethnicities, and women could only vote if their state law allowed them. (Wermiel n. p.) According to the book, Selma and The Voting Rights Act, even though President Abraham Lincoln declared the slaves free in 1863 with his Emancipation Proclamation, the whites held the blacks under them with barely any rights still in the 1960s. (Aretha, 11) The UXL Encyclopedia of U.S. History records that when Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 to try to protect the rights of black citizens after Civil War, the south started the Black Codes. States passed the Black Codes, laws created by white southerners, to limit the rights and freedoms of blacks. (Benson, Brannen, and Valentine, 297) The Ku Klux Klan, a secret group of white sout... ... middle of paper ... .... If the Civil Rights Movement, the fight for African Americans right to vote, or the Women’s Suffrage Movement had not occurred, many of us would not hold the right to vote today. Works Cited Aretha, David. Selma And The Voting Rights Act. Greensboro, North Carolina: Morgan Reynolds Publishing, 2008. Print. Benson, Sonia, Daniel E. Brannen Jr., and Rebecca Valentine. UXL Encyclopedia of U.S. History. Ed. Lawrence W. Baker and Sarah Hermsen. Vol. 2 and Vol. 8. Detroit: Gale, Cengage, 2009. Print. Carter, David C. “Voting Rights Act of 1965.” World Book Advanced. World Book. 2014. Web. 31 Jan. 2014. Kauffman, Heather. “Women’s Suffrage.” Issues and Controversies in American History. Infobase, 1 Oct. 2005. Web. 31 Jan. 2014. Wermiel, Stephen J. “Heroes of the Struggle for Voting Rights.” Human Rights. 39.1 (2012): 29. History Reference Center. Web. 6 Feb. 2014.
... Conference.” Reader’s Companion to American History. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1991. Online. Internet. Available at HTTP: http://www.historychannel.com/. 23 Sept 2001.
The right to vote in the United States of America had always been a very important part of its society. The 1800s had brought about a different way of voting in the United States for white American men. The qualifications were
Hoebeke, C. H. (1995). The road to mass democracy: original intent and the Seventeenth Amendment. New Brunswick (U.S.A): Transaction Publishers.
Janda, Kenneth. "2 The Constitution." The Challenge of Democracy Government in America. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 2008. Print.
Although establishing rights for many different members of society, the voting rights act isn’t the end of this concern. We can learn from history that the interpretation of voting rights will always be in question by some new player. The best we can do is to understand that voting rights in American history has had much to with time and place, thus the reason for the ongoing change in the interpretation.
Levy, Peter B., The Civil RIghts Movement, Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut, 1998. Web. 24 June 2015.
Kimberling, William C. “The Electoral College.” Federal Election Commission, May 1992. Web. 13 March 2012.
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
"Historical momentum for civil rights legislation picked up speed after 1945 as a result of black migration to northern cities and the experiences of black soldier in World War II. Bills introduced in Congress regarding employment policy brought the issue of civil rights to the attention of representatives and senators" (CongressLink, n.d.). Apparently the Fourteenth Amendment didn't protect black people from their civil rights that were being violated by individuals. This was a start for the civil rights movement, but in order to understand the Civil Rights Act you have to know the definition of civil rights. According to Cornell Law School: Wex "A civil right is an enforceable right or privilege, which if interfered with by another gives rise to an action for injury. Examples of civil rights are freedom of speech, press, assembly, the right to vote, freedom from involuntary servitude, and the right to equality in public spaces" (Cornell Law School, 2005). Because of the history of discrimination, there were many attempts in legislation that led up to the historical landmark of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that is now part of our nation legacy. Civil rights movements can be tracked back to the Reconstruction era.
Kimberling, William C. “The Electoral College.” Federal Election Commission. May. 1992. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.
Rochester Regional Library Council (2000). Western New York Suffragists: Winning the Vote. October 8,2007, from http://www.winningthevote.org/glossary.html.
In the latter half of the 18th century, freed slaves possessed the right to vote in all but three states. It was not until the 19th century that states began to pass laws to disenfranchise the black population. In 1850, only 6 out of the 31 states allowed blacks to vote. 1Following the civil war, three reconstruction amendments were passed. The first and second sought to end slavery and guarantee equal rights. The third, the 15th amendment, granted suffrage regardless of color, race, or previous position of servitude.2 The 15th Amendment monumentally changed the structure of American politics as it was no longer the privileged whites who could vote. For some it was as though hell had arrived on earth, but for others, it was freedom singing. However, the song was short lived. While many political cartoons from the period show the freedom that ex-slaves have for voting because of the 15th Amendment, they often neglect to include the fact that many African Americans were coerced into voting a certain way or simply had their rights stripped from them.
Foner, Eric and John A. Garraty. The Reader’s Companion to American History. (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1991).
Garrow, David J. Protest at Selma: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. New York: New Haven and London Yale University Press. 1978
“American civil rights movement.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 2013. .