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15th Amendment Gives Black Men the Right to Vote
Archive.gov shows that Black men were given the right to vote by Congress on February 26, 1869, and the right ratified on February 3, 1870. The 15th Amendment granted Black men the right —however many obstacles to voting remain more than 100 years later. -
Compromise of 1877 was made ushering in Jim Crow laws
According to The National Museum of African American History and Culture
After the Compromise of 1877, the infamous Jim Crow Laws were introduced. These laws were barriers at the state and local level that prevented African Americans from voting. White supremacists used intimidation, literacy tests, and poll taxes to scare away Black voters. -
Freedom Summer Protests
Archive. gov records tell the story of The Freedom Summer Summer Project which resulted in various meetings, protests, freedom schools, freedom housing, freedom libraries, and a collective rise in awareness of voting rights and disenfranchisement experienced by African Americans in Mississippi. -
Bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday Academy4SC.org recalls the day when peaceful protesters in Selma, Alabama, were viciously beaten by law enforcement. The murders and the brutality displayed by law enforcement shocked the nation and prompted President Lyndon B. Johnson and Congress to push more forcefully for voting rights legislation. -
Signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is one of the most important pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history. It banned literacy tests, established federal oversight in jurisdictions particularly prone to voter discrimination, and directed the federal government to investigate poll taxes in state and local elections.