The 1950s and 1960s is an era of widespread social and political mayhem evidence by several conflicts that affected later generations. The conflicts originated from various social and political aspects that have shaped the society and politics of today. Some of the conflicts included civil rights movements, unsung heroes, complacency and voting rights advocacy among others. Voting rights were specifically the lead source of political unrest in the era characterized by denial and exclusion in the voting process based on race and ethnicity (Johnson 2015). An analysis of the origins of conflicts emanating from the struggle of voting rights and its consequences can shed light on today’s era.
The right to vote is a determinant of the authenticity of any democratic government. Today, the US government claims to be the most democratic government in the world. However, in the 19540's and 1960's democracy was challenged by the conflicts in the right to vote for America citizens. Voting rights conflicts originated from the suppression of the white on the blacks. US states refused to recognize the right of slaves to vote to emphasize the need to maintain a racial class system to maintain social and political stability even after the end of slavery. The economic system then was founded on the consideration of the blacks as slave inferior to the white and with no right to participate in the social and political responsibility of the United States. Conflicts arose when the blacks demanded to take part in the election exercise through civil right movements and resistance (Johnson, 2015). Hence, voting right conflict arose from racial discrimination and ethnicity where the white did not consider the people of color has had the right to vote.
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The denying black the right to participate in the ballot process had several implications on the social and political state of America in the 1960's. Firstly, there was the formation of several civil rights movements demanding the rights of the Blacks to vote. Hasen described the movements as “the voting wars." Here, the right to vote was not explicit, and the court had no problem with regulations that outrightly affected the right to vote. Secondly, there were chaos and confusion from demonstrations by African Americans in the pursuit of their right to vote. Some protesters demonstrated peacefully while other citizens attacked the protesters causing harm and destruction. For example, activists were attacked while marching on the streets of Alabama to support President Johnson in his agenda to institute voting rights act. Nevertheless, the protests were able to institute change by pushing politicians to consider the right to vote for all citizens including the African American. President Johnson then introduced the Voting rights act to Congress that aimed at eliminating the racial bias that promoted injustice to the African Americans (Rhodan, 2015).
In the end, voting rights were availed to African Americans and provided for in the law that all citizens have a right to vote regardless of color or ethnicity. The right to vote act has seen people of color exercise their right since then by even occupying political positions in the US. The election of a black president Obama shows that the struggles of a right to vote of 1960's have borne fruits and contributed towards achieving democracy. However, the right to vote continues to be a source of problems even in modern America with some states like Texas still infringing voting rights, taking the state back to the 1960s. For instance, restrictions on voting hours and documentation required for voting put a barrier on Americans right to vote. This is an indication that the right to vote is still restricted and hence the conflict is not yet resolved. The emphasis of voting as a major agenda in driving political debates in modern America symbolize that the issue of voting is still affecting the citizens of US (Walsh, 2015).
In conclusion, voting rights formed one of the major conflicts on the 1960's era and continued to be a major source of conflict in the modern day politics of the United States. However, there has been affluent changes and improvements in the right for the African Americans over the years. Policies are still under implementation to improve the right of all citizens to vote without discrimination on any basis let alone race or ethnicity. The changes and adjustments go a long way in mapping the US in the top list of democratic countries. Evidently, the struggles of the 1960’s have yielded positive effects on the civil right to exercise ballots for all citizens.
References
Johnson, P. C. (2015). Voter rights and civil rights era cold cases: Section Five and the Five Cities Project. Touro Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity, 7 (1), 377-390.
Rhodan, M. (2015). The voting rights act at 50: How the law came to be. Time Inc . Retrieved on 7 March 2018, from http://time.com/3985603/voting-rights-act-1965-history/.
Walsh, K. T. (2015). Voting rights still a hot-button issue. US News &World Report L.P . Retrieved on 7 March 2017 from https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/08/04/voting-rights-still-a-political-issue-50-years-later.
