Was The Recent Voting Rights Ruling A Victory Or A Sham?
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is still decimated
When the Voting Rights Act of 1965 passed, there was celebration in the streets. Part of the Act was intended to enforce the Fifteenth Amendment, which granted Black male citizens the right to vote in 1870. You'd think the Fifteenth Amendment would have been enough to secure their rights, but several Southern states immediately passed new laws making it harder for them to cast a ballot. These new laws included literacy tests, poll taxes, gerrymandering, and redistricting. Lynching wasn't legal, but that was a popular method of deterring political engagement.
The Fourteenth Amendment was gutted in 1876 in United States v. Cruikshank. The court suggested that “the Bill of Rights did not provide protections against the state governments.,” removing federal protections and claiming each state was responsible, which meant nothing for Black "citizens" in the South, to those deprived of life, liberty, and property. At the time, the Supreme Court clarified that the Fifteenth Amendment didn't grant a right for Black people to vote, just not to be discriminated against.
Black people had already been voting in large numbers and successfully elected members to Congress. Altogether, “about 2,000 Black Americans held public office…
