THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT

VOTING RIGHTS ACT

The Voting Rights Act (VRA) bans racial discrimination in voting practices by the federal government as well as by state and local governments.

Passed in 1965 after a century of deliberate and violent denial of the vote to African-Americans in the South and Latinos in the Southwest – as well as many years of entrenched electoral systems that shut out citizens with limited fluency in English – the VRA is often held up as the most effective civil rights law ever enacted. It is widely regarded as enabling the enfranchisement of millions of minority voters and diversifying the electorate and legislative bodies at all levels of American government.

OVERALL HISTORY

• Americans vote less than any other people in Western societies. Just half of registered voters actually vote in presidential elections, and many fewer vote in state and local elections.

• Today, the only restrictions on voting involve the insane, convicted felons, and the young– In the past, women, paupers, African-Americans, Native Americans,

Asian immigrants, and other groups were denied the right to vote. – There were religious tests, property qualifications, literacy tests,

poll taxes, and exclusions on the grounds of race and sex.

OVERALL HISTORY

The United States was the first nation to expand the vote to virtually all white men, but it has also undergone periods in which voting rights were restricted, and it was one of the last Western nations to guarantee the vote to all citizens.

WHY NEGROS COULDN’T VOTE

They were considered to be property and after slavery the white man didn't want them to vote because they still felt they were less of a person.

IMPACT OF THE REVOLUTION

• The American Revolution was fought in part over the issue of voting.

• The Revolutionaries rejected the British argument that representation in

Parliament could be virtual.– meaning that English members of Parliament could adequately

represent the interests of the colonists

•Instead, the Revolutionaries argued that government derived its legitimacy

from the consent of the governed.

WOMENS RIGHTS TO VOTE

Beginning in the 1800s, women organized, petitioned, and picketed to win the right to vote, but it took them decades to accomplish their purpose. Between 1878, when the amendment was first introduced in Congress, and August 18, 1920, when it was ratified, champions of voting rights for women worked tirelessly, but strategies for achieving their goal varied. Some pursued a strategy of passing suffrage acts in each state—nine western states adopted woman suffrage legislation by 1912. Others challenged male-only voting laws in the courts. Militant suffragists used tactics such as parades, silent vigils, and hunger strikes. Often supporters met fierce resistance. Opponents heckled, jailed, and sometimes physically abused them.

NOW YOU GUY’S ARE GOING TO BE WATCHING A

YOUTUBE VIDEOhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=IYQhRCs9IHM

GOODBYE

As you guys can see color people wont the only ones to have issues with voting so did women and latenio

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