Since the pre-medieval period, African Americans were faced with numerous challenges comprising injustices perpetrated under American law protection. Americans of color in the United States were faced with discriminatory activities supported by the establishment of the Jim Crow laws. Under the Jim Crow era, Americans of color were faced with numerous challenges, even seeking justice from the courts of law. The Jim Crow era passed discriminatory laws during the late 19th century and early 20th century (Cobb, 2015). Under the Jim Crow laws, African Americans were not allowed to participate in several activities, including voting, and were also not allowed to acquire civic education under most circumstances.
Several years after slavery was abolished in the United States, 1865, every American's voting rights, regardless of their race, were enshrined into the constitution under the 4th amendment. Afterward, the amendment was ratified in 1868 to affirm the right of African Americans to be granted American citizenship (Cobb, 2015). In 1870, the 15th amendment criminalized voting officials' actions of denying African Americans their rights to vote. Despite the criminalizing of the actions against African Americans' rights to voting, the reality was different for Americans of color. For example, most Southern States of United States established legal barriers that Americans of color were required to pass before participating in voting.
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According to Harada (2012), some examples of these legal barriers erected in the Southern States included literacy tests. Before the vote, the voting officials required every American of color to pass the literacy tests, despite how hard they were. This action was against the court ruling and requirements by the fifteenth amendment; black voters were still restricted from exercising their voting rights. Besides, Americans of color were also required to pay steep poll taxes, unlike their white counterparts.
Besides being restricted from exercising their rights to vote, Americans of color were also threatened by the authorities against participating in political activities. Besides, in 1964, the civil rights efforts culminated in the Freedom summer. Large populations of black voters met and initiated voter registration campaigns in the Mississippi region located in the United States' southern region (Harada, 2012). Despite the concerted efforts to create awareness across different people on registering as voters, the authorities were against the move. This saw the Americans of color countered with police officers' violence and rage (Cobb, 2015). To create awareness across the Southern region, Americans of color were met with fierce repulsion from police officers, which left many people dead while many others were fatally injured.
During the summer period, there was increased awareness of voter suppression and voting officials' actions to deny Americans of color their voting rights. Nevertheless, the support for change and reinstatement of black rights to voting continued to gain a lot of followership across the U.S. Consequently, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 took effect in 1964 and prohibited voting authorities and the police force from engaging in actions that declined Americans of color their right to voting (Cobb, 2015). The latter prohibited all forms of discrimination and segregation in public places, including voting and schools. The Act also banned the double standards of voting accorded to White individuals. However, the Act did not eliminate literacy tests that African Americans were required to pass before being allowed to take part in voting. The 1964 Act also did not outlaw intimidation and violence against African Americans around the polling stations.
In 1965, activists joined together to push for the passage of the “ Voting Rights Act of 1965 ,” which aimed to eliminate all forms of intimidation and violence on African Americans during voting time. The enactment of the Voting Rights Act by President Lyndon Johnson was significant progress and success the African Americans; the Act eliminated injustices accorded to African Americans to protect them from exercising their voting rights.
References
Cobb, J. (2015). The Voting Rights Act at 50: How It Changed the World . Civil Rights History. Retrieved 31 March 2021, from https://time.com/3985479/voting-rights-act-1965-results/.
Harada, M. (2012). The Voting Rights Act of 1965 and Strategic Policy Making in the South. State Politics & Policy Quarterly , 12 (4), 456–482. https://doi.org/10.1177/1532440012451979
