This month marks 47 years since President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The legislation was a response to the discriminatory voting practices many African Americans faced in the South after the Civil War. It was celebrated as a sign of changing times: blacks would no longer endure outlandish obstacles such as literacy tests, poll taxes, harassment, and in the most severe cases, physical violence that kept them from engaging in their community…

Fast forward to 2012; the path to civic engagement has new obstacles. Several state governments have enacted a range of laws that suppress voting, and there have been more challenges to the Voting Rights Act since 2011 than the previous 45 years combined.

The Voting Rights Act 47 Years Later | Open Society Foundations (via rachelfershleiser)

(via rachelfershleiser)

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