Why did Congress enact the 1965 Voting Rights Act?
Nearly 100 years after the Civil War, many blacks were still prevented from registering to vote or from voting, especially in the South, but also in other states throughout the U.S. In some states, those blacks who tried to register were told it was the wrong day; the wrong time; the wrong month; that no registrar was available; that they had failed a literacy test; or that they had not paid poll taxes. In the summer of 1964 and spring of 1965, voting rights advocates were killed in Mississippi and Alabama for seeking to register blacks. In Selma, Alabama, hundreds of peaceful marchers were savagely beaten by state troopers using tear gas, clubs, and dogs. The national news programs broadcast pictures of the Bloody Sunday attack on black men, women, and children. Those images of violence galvanized the nation that more was necessary to secure the voting rights of blacks.
