March 1, 1948

The Voters and Veterans Association of Mobile sued in federal court on behalf of 10 African-American plaintiffs against the Boswell Amendment to the Alabama Constitution. Designed to prevent blacks from voting, the amendment required all potential voters to understand and explain any part of the U.S. Constitution to the satisfaction of local registrars before registering to vote. A panel of three U.S. District Court judges heard the suit, known as Davis v. Schnell, and in January 1949, declared the Boswell Amendment unconstitutional. In 1951, however, the Alabama Legislature adopted new voter qualification laws that stood until the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the 1964 Civil Rights Act as Martin Luther King, Jr., and others, look on, July 2, 1964. (Cecil Stoughton, White House Press Office (WHPO), http://photolab.lbjlib.utexas.edu/detail.asp?id=18031, Wikimedia)

President Lyndon B. Johnson meets with Martin Luther King, Jr. at the signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. (Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum, Yoichi Okamoto, Wikimedia)

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.