The 1965 Voting Rights Act

It came after decades of discrimination, violence and disenfranchisement -- President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act in 1965, "an Act to enforce the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States." That Act worked. In the decades since, though, states and the Supreme Court have changed what that Act means and can do.

Our guides to this sweeping legislation are Sonni Waknin of the UCLA Voting Rights Project and Gary May, author of Bending Towards Justice: The Voting Rights Act and the Transformation of American Democracy.

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To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro.