Renewing the Voting Rights Act

Since the Voting Rights Act (VRA) was first signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965, five additional presidents have signed the enactment or reauthorization of key parts of the Act – Richard Nixon (1970), Gerald Ford (1975), Ronald Regan (1982), George H.W. Bush (1992) and George W. Bush (2006). Though these periodic reauthorizations are necessary to keep some of the sections of the VRA from expiring, there are portions of the Act which have been made permanent and do not need renewal.

One such section of the VRA is Section 2. When this section was first introduced in 1965 it prohibited voting practices which were enacted, at least in part, with the purpose to discriminate. It was not until President Ronald Reagan signed the Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1982 that Section 2 became permanent. This amendment also stated that proof of discriminatory purpose or intent was not required to make a racially discriminatory voting practice a violation of voting rights.

The 1982 amendment of Section 2 had a remarkable impact on African American representation in Congress. Before 1982 Amendments were signed into law, there had not been a single African American elected to Congress since Reconstruction from Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina even though African Americans made up almost a third or more of the population in these states. Today, all of these states have an African American representative in Congress and there are 43 black Senators and Representatives serving states around the country.

To learn more about the history of the Voting Rights Act visit the Avoice exhibit

Now Showing – Avoice Seminar on the Enactment of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Bill

On January 14, 2008 Avoice and the Division of U.S. Studies at the Woodrow Wilson Center joined together to commemorate the 40th anniversary year of Rev. King's assassination and the 25th anniversary year of the passage of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Bill with a seminar addressing the social and legislative history of the bill as well as the continuing significance of Dr. King's life today. Speakers included Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.), Dr. Elsie L. Scott, President and CEO of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Denise Rolark Barnes, Publisher of The Washington Informer, and Moses Boyd, Senior Counselor with the Washington Group and former Public Policy Scholar at the Wilson Center.

To watch the C-SPAN broadcast of the event click here

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Avoice Photo and Document Galleries Now Work with Zotero!

Conducting research on Avoice and need to organize your sources? The Congressional Black Caucus’ Virtual Library photo and document galleries now work with Zotero! A free, easy-to-use extension to the Firefox web browser, Zotero is a research tool that lets you gather, organize, and analyze sources (citations, full texts, web pages, images, and other objects), as well as letting you share the results of your research in a variety of ways. Just download Zotero at www.zotero.org, visit the Avoice photo and document galleries, and then look for the page symbol in your address bar. With one click store the reference information for any Avoice photo or document so it will be easy to site later.

To download Zotero click here

 

More Avoice Exhibits:

additional information and links.

Origins of the CBC

Trace the history of the CBC with an in-depth look at exactly how, when and why the Caucus was initially formed.

Voting Rights Act

Learn how the CBC has spent years fighting tirelessly to protect the voting rights of underrepresented people

MLK, Jr. Holiday Bill

Look back at how the CBC led the charge for the creation of a federal holiday honoring the civil rights hero.

Anti-Apartheid Movement

Read about the significant role CBC members played in the dismantling of the apartheid system in South Africa.