Aug. 6, 1965
President Lyndon Johnson signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act into law on this day. The impetus for the bill came about in March 1965 after state and local law officers attacked civil rights marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma who were on their way to Montgomery. The event became known as “Bloody Sunday” and the violence attracted worldwide attention. The law abolished legal barriers and policies that prevented African Americans from voting.
Read more at the Alabama Department of Archives and History.
The Voting Rights Act, signed Aug. 6, 1965. (U.S. Congress, Wikipedia)
The Voting Rights Act, signed Aug. 6, 1965. (U.S. Congress, Wikipedia)
For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.
