Timeline: The Voting Rights Act (VRA)

Few laws in American history have reshaped democracy as profoundly as the Voting Rights Act of 1965. But the struggle it sought to address was nearly two centuries in the making. From the nation’s founding—when states limited the ballot largely to white male property owners—through Reconstruction’s brief expansion of Black political power and the swift backlash of poll taxes, literacy tests, and “grandfather clauses,” the right to vote was repeatedly defined, restricted, and reclaimed. By the mid-20th century, civil rights activists in the streets and lawyers in the courts forced the country to confront the gap between its democratic ideals and its discriminatory reality.

When President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act on August 6, 1965, it marked a turning point: for the first time, the federal government assumed sweeping authority to block discriminatory voting rules before they could take effect. The VRA’s early decades brought dramatic gains in voter registration, political representation, and enforcement through powerful tools like Section 5 preclearance and the nationwide protections of Section 2. Yet the law’s trajectory has never been static. Amendments strengthened it, court battles tested it, and recent Supreme Court rulings have weakened core provisions—leaving states, advocates, and voters navigating a landscape where the VRA remains essential, but no longer as robust as it once was.

Pre‑1965 Roots & Antecedents

• 1789 / Early Republic: Voting qualifications left to states; many restricted voting to white male property owners.
• 1865–1870: 15th Amendment ratified to prohibit voting discrimination by race; Southern states soon undermined it with poll taxes and literacy tests.
• 1896 onward: Grandfather clauses and similar tools drastically reduced Black voter registration in the South.
• 1950s–1960s: Civil rights movement and legal activism (e.g., Selma marches) intensified calls for federal voting protections.

1965 Enactment

• August 6, 1965: President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act (VRA).
• 1966: The Supreme Court upheld the VRA in South Carolina v. Katzenbach.

Amendments & Expansion

• 1970: Banned literacy tests nationwide.
• 1975: Extended protections to language minority groups.
• 1982: Made Section 2 permanent and eased the burden to prove discrimination.
• 1992: Added provisions for voting assistance and bilingual requirements.
• 2006: Congress reauthorized key provisions nearly unanimously.

Core Enforcement (1965–2013)

• Section 4: Created a coverage formula identifying jurisdictions with histories of discrimination.
• Section 5: Required preclearance of voting changes in covered areas.
• Section 2: Prohibits discriminatory voting practices nationwide (still active).

2013 – Shelby County v. Holder

• June 2013: Supreme Court invalidated Section 4(b) coverage formula, disabling Section 5 preclearance.
• Post‑Shelby: States previously covered enacted new voting restrictions; litigation under Section 2 increased.

Recent Legal Challenges

• 2021 – Brnovich v. DNC: Court narrowed standards for Section 2 cases.
• 2025 – Louisiana Redistricting: Supreme Court reviewing whether race-conscious redistricting violates the Constitution under the current VRA interpretation.

State Responses & Today

• Some states passed state-level VRAs to maintain protections.
• Others imposed new voting restrictions under the loosened federal framework.
• The VRA remains vital but weakened; its future may depend on ongoing and future Supreme Court rulings.

Sources

• ACLU – Major Voting Rights Act Dates
• Wikipedia – Voting Rights Act of 1965
• National Archives – Voting Rights Act
• New York Times, NPR – 2025 Supreme Court coverage