On March 7 1965, over 500 civil rights activists led by John Lewis and Hosea Williams embarked on a march from Selma, Alabama to the state capital of Montgomery. The rally was part of broad nonviolence campaign to raise awareness and demand action to address ongoing deprivations of rights and liberties suffered by Black Americans. A contingent of Alabama State Troopers blocked the marchers outside Selma at Edmund Pettus Bridge and dispersed the activists with tear gas and clubs, hospitalizing dozens of people. Horrific images of the violence generated outrage across the nation and earned the brutality the label “Bloody Sunday.” Two weeks later, President Johnson addressed the nation, calling the march a “turning point in man’s unending search for freedom” and announced the introduction of a voting rights bill to Congress.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is an extraordinary piece of legislation that provided both a sword and a shield against laws that would suppress the right to vote. Section 2 of the Act implemented a nationwide ban against voting practices and procedures that discriminate on the basis of race, color, or membership in a language minority group. Section 5 of the Act mandated that states and municipalities with the worst history of voter suppression would be required to gain federal ‘preclearance’ before making any changes to their election laws. Section 4 of the Act contained a coverage formula for determining the states and municipalities that would be subject to the federal preclearance requirement of section 5.
The impact and success of the Voting Rights Act was immediate and monumental. In covered jurisdictions, voter registration rates among Black Americans increased from under 30% to over 50% over the two years following its enactment. The Act has also been used to block or overturn hundreds of discriminatory election laws such as literacy tests, poll taxes, and vote dilution efforts. It has recently been heralded as the “most significant action taken since the post-Civil War Reconstruction Acts to overcome Southern suppression of black voters.”
The Voting Rights Act has historically enjoyed overwhelming political support and has received Congressional renewal on four occasions. In 2006, the Act was extended by a vote margin of 390-22 in the House of Representatives and 98-0 in the Senate. Congress has also taken steps to strengthen the Act to meet evolving threats to the franchise. In 1982 Congress amended Section 2 so as to specify that the ban on laws with a disparate impact applies to laws with discriminatory results, not just laws passed with a discriminatory intent.
In 2013 the Supreme Court decision Shelby County v. Holder substantially weakened the Voting Rights Act. A five justice plurality found that the Section 4 coverage formula was unconstitutional because it was “based on 40-year-old facts having no logical relationship to the present day.” The dissenting judges, led by Justice Ginsburg, likened the elimination of preclearance to “throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.” Efforts to update the coverage formula and thereby reintroduce federal preclearance have stalled in Congress.
Several states previously subject to the preclearance requirement moved quickly to enact new election laws. The day that Shelby County was decided, Texas officials announced the implementation of a stringent photo identification requirement that had previously been blocked under federal preclearance. To date, seven states have established strict photo ID requirements under which would-be voters who lack acceptable identification must return to an election office with the required identification in order to have their provisional ballot counted. A recent Project Vote study found that approximately 13% of African Americans and 10% of Latinos lack the kinds of photo ID that are required to vote in these states, yet only 5% of whites lack such identification. These demographic trends make unforgiving photo ID laws particularly troubling.
One month after Shelby County, North Carolina passed a battery of election legislation that repealed same-day registration and out-of-precinct voting, reduced the early voting period, and ended pre-registration for 16 and 17 year olds. Unfortunately, this legislation is part of a growing national trend. Since 2010, 22 states have enacted new laws restricting or impeding voting ease and opportunities. Furthermore, uneven application and enforcement of election procedures also threatens access to the ballot. For example, in the 2014 midterm elections Georgia failed to timely process about 40,000 new voter registration applications and in North Carolina there were reports that some voters were asked to present identification, even though the state’s new voter ID law does not go into effect until 2016.
The repressive laws and practices employed in recent elections have emphasized the imperative function of the Voting Rights Act and have underscored that activism, as well as legal and political efforts are still necessary on both a local and national scale in order to secure an equal opportunity to participate in the political process for all Americans.
Keir Lamont is a legal intern with Project Vote
Photo: Jack Rabin collection on Alabama civil rights and southern activists, 1941-2004 (bulk 1956-1974), Historical Collections and Labor Archives, Eberly Family Special Collections Library, University Libraries, Pennsylvania State University via Creative Commons.