The Voting Rights Act of 1965

Running head: The Voting Rights Act of 1965











The Voting Rights Act of 1965
Nicole F. Williams
Troy State University
New Orleans Area
October 4, 1999
PA 644 Administrative Law
Term Paper
Mr. Rick Spraglin- Instructor









“The right to vote freely for the candidate of one's choice is of the essence of a democratic society, and any restrictions on that right strike at the heart of representative government." (Chief Justice Earl Warren, Reynolds v. Sims - 1964)

In 1965 Congress passed The Voting Rights Act, one of the most effective civil rights laws ever enacted. The Act immediately outlawed the worst Jim Crow laws in the South, such as literacy tests and other devices that kept black citizens out of the voting booth. Then gradually, through court decisions and Congressional amendments, more subtle schemes to disenfranchise minorities fell by the wayside. In Mississippi, for example, black registration rose from 6.7 percent in 1964 to 70.8 ...