Voting Rights Act of 1965

Cultural  

1. A law passed at the time of the civil rights movement. It eliminated various devices, such as literacy tests, that had traditionally been used to restrict voting by black people. It authorized the enrollment of voters by federal registrars in states where fewer than fifty percent of the eligible voters were registered or voted. All such states were in the South.

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Example Sentences

He protested alongside Martin Luther King Jr., helped organize and finance the 1963 March on Washington, and was instrumental in gathering support for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Fair Housing Act, and Medicare and Medicaid.

From The Wall Street Journal

On August 6 of that year, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, prohibiting the literacy tests that for decades had been used to keep Negroes from voting, primarily in the South.

From Literature

Lawmakers redrew the state’s congressional map after the 2020 census, but a court said the new lines were problematic because they diluted the power of Black voters, which Supreme Court precedents have held violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

From The Wall Street Journal

Callais, a case that concerns the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

From The Wall Street Journal

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlaws racial discrimination in voting.

From Salon