Voting Rights Then and Now: From 1965 Act to Today's Battleground

Heather Cox Richardson reminds readers that the Voting Rights Act, signed on August 6, 1965, followed a long arc from Reconstruction amendments and federal enforcement against white supremacist obstruction to protect Black voting rights; she details how later Supreme Court decisions and recent cases have narrowed those protections and boosted suppression in some states, while studies show persistent and widening gaps in turnout—echoing Lyndon Johnson’s pledge that the vote is the core right without which democracy falters.