Voting Rights Act

Thanks in part to the courage and heavy news media coverage of the Selma marchers, President Johnson signs the historic Voting Rights Act. It prohibits states from using biased procedures or preconditions such as literacy tests to disqualify citizens from voting.²¹ In his televised address to the nation, Johnson says, “Today is a triumph for freedom as huge as any victory that has ever been won on any battlefield. Yet to seize the meaning of this day, we must recall darker times. Three and a half centuries ago the first Negroes arrived at Jamestown. They did not arrive in brave ships in search of a home for freedom. … They came in darkness, and they came in chains. And today we strike away the last major shackle of those fierce and ancient bonds. Today the Negro story and the American story fuse and blend.”²²