Resource: Voting Rights

In 1870 the Fifteenth Amendment was passed, prohibiting racial discrimination in voting. But for years, many southern states skirted the law by administering tests designed to prevent African Americans from registering. Those who tried to register were rejected, and sometimes threatened or beaten. Without voting rights, African Americans had limited political power.

In the early 1960s, the interracial Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) launched a grassroots voter registration campaign in Mississippi and Alabama, where some of the strictest systems of segregation existed. Volunteers generated interest, support, and controversy by going door-to-door to persuade African Americans to register to vote.

In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the landmark Civil Rights Act, but it did not address voting rights. Civil rights organizations such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) joined forces with SNCC and focused their attention on passing federal legislation that would guarantee African Americans the right to vote.

The SCLC targeted Selma, Alabama, where roughly half the population was black, but only one percent of the black population was registered to vote. (Sixty-five percent of the white population was registered to vote.) Dallas County sheriff Jim Clark was known for his tough opposition to registering black voters. The registrar's office at the courthouse was open only two days each month, with unpredictable hours, and random tests were administered only to African Americans. The SCLC knew that effecting change in Selma was a long shot, but they also knew that the resistance encountered there could draw national attention to the issue and amplify the demand for voting rights.

It came as no surprise when Sheriff Clark barred demonstrators, including the Reverend C.T. Vivian and Ms. Zecosey Williams, from entering the Dallas County courthouse. But the demonstrators persisted. During a separate nighttime march for voting rights in nearby Marion, a young black man, Jimmy Lee Jackson, was shot point blank by an Alabama state trooper. In response, SCLC proposed a five-day, 54-mile march from Selma to Montgomery.

Alabama governor George Wallace banned the march, but on Sunday, March 7, 1965 600 people set out on foot for Montgomery. As they left Selma, they were greeted by Sheriff Clark and state troopers, who fired tear gas at them and beat them until they fled. National news coverage of the violence -- dubbed "Bloody Sunday" -- drew hundreds of civil rights supporters to Selma. James Reeb, a white minister from Boston, was beaten to death in Selma.

In the end, it took three attempts, a federal order by President Lyndon Johnson, and the presence of the Alabama National Guard before the march succeeded. By the time they arrived in Montgomery, 25,000 people from across the country had joined in the struggle for voting rights. And on August 6, 1965, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law.

How and why were the people depicted in this video segment prevented from voting?

How is the word justice used in this video segment? What does it refer to?

In what ways is power used to attain justice? In what ways is power used to prevent justice?