A Paper on Shelby County V. Holder

3659 words 15 pages
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibits voting discrimination. With the condition to receive preclearance stated in section 5 of the Act from the Department of Justice before making any changes affecting the voting process, also came four other prohibitions. The prohibition of literacy test or other similar test or devices as a prerequisite to voter registration is one prevention. The requirement of jurisdictions with significant language minority populations to provide non-English ballots and oral voting instructions is another. Third is the prohibition of vote dilution, which is the remapping of districts to suppress the minority vote. The final provision was one of the most controversial of the Act. It established the federal oversight …show more content…

The redemption of the southern United States continued to thrive until the next century. The Civil Rights Movement in the nation in the 1950s and 1960s finally confronted the disenfranchisement of African Americans. One federal law produced during this time that forced the entanglement of racism and discrimination was the Civil Rights Act of 1964, particularly in southern states where African American disenfranchisement from economic, political and social institutions was a way of life. According to the Act, "All persons within the jurisdiction of the United States shall have the same right in every State and Territory...as enjoyed by white citizens, and shall be subject to like punishment, pains, penalties, taxes, licenses, and exactions of every kind, and to no other." It also was the first federal statute of its kind to addressed voting rights stating:
All citizens of the United States who are otherwise qualified by law to vote at any election by the people in any State, Territory, district, county, city, parish, township, school district, municipality, or other territorial subdivision, shall be entitled and allowed to vote at all such elections, without distinction of race, color, or previous condition of servitude; any constitution, law, custom, usage, or regulation of

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