The Road to the Voting Rights Act

The events that led up to the passage of the historic law.

The March for Voting Rights Continues - Aug. 6, 2015, marks the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Here is a look at the events that led up to the passage of the historic law and the fight to restore it to its original strength. — Joyce Jones (Photo: William Lovelace/Express/Getty Images)
In the Beginning - Although the 15th Amendment prohibited preventing people to vote based on race or color, several mostly Southern states continued to deny Blacks the right to vote. They applied a variety of methods, including literacy tests and poll taxes. (Photo: Charles 'Teenie' Harris/Carnegie Museum of Art/Getty Images)
In Name Only - Enacted on May 6, 1960, the Civil Rights Act enabled the Justice Department to inspect all records related to voter registration and introduced penalties for obstructing anyone's ability to register to vote and cast a ballot. The bill was signed by President Dwight Eisenhower, and proved to be ineffectual. (Photo: Abbie Rowe/PhotoQuest/Getty Images)The Freedom Summer - Organized by a coalition of civil rights organizations, thousands of activists and volunteers, including many white college students from the North, "invaded" Mississippi from June to August in 1964 to register as many Black voters as possible. They also registered voters in other Southern states.  (Photo: John Duprey/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)

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The March for Voting Rights Continues - Aug. 6, 2015, marks the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Here is a look at the events that led up to the passage of the historic law and the fight to restore it to its original strength. — Joyce Jones (Photo: William Lovelace/Express/Getty Images)

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