Today in History 03/15/18

President Lyndon B. Johnson addresses a joint session of Congress in Washington, DC, March 15, 1965, to outline his proposals for voting rights for all citizens. Vice President Hubert Humphrey is at left and House Speaker John McCormack is at right. (© AP)(1965) President Johnson’s civil rights speech
The struggles of civil rights activists, and the recent violence they encountered in Alabama, inspire LBJ’s speech to the US Congress. He quotes the activists’ hallmark phrase, “we shall overcome,” and calls for voting rights for all. The speech will help galvanize support for the Voting Rights Act.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the Civil Rights Movement on August 6, 1965, and Congress later amended the Act five times to expand its protections. Designed to enforce the voting rights guaranteed by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, the Act secured voting rights for racial minorities throughout the country, especially in the South. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the Act is considered to be the most effective piece of federal civil rights legislation ever enacted in the country.
Lyndon Johnson and Martin Luther King, Jr. - Voting Rights Act
President Lyndon B. Johnson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rosa Parks at the signing of the Voting Rights Act on August 6, 1965
wiki/Voting_Rights_Act_of_1965
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