Josie Johnson looks back at 50 years of the Voting Rights Act
In this Aug. 6, 1965, photo, President Lyndon Baines Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in a ceremony in the President's Room near the Senate Chambers on Capitol Hill in Washington. Three years ago, the Supreme Court warned there could be constitutional problems with a landmark civil rights law that has opened voting booths to millions of African-Americans. Now, opponents of a key part of the Voting Rights Act are asking the high court to finish that provision off. Surrounding the president from left directly above his right hand, Vice President Hubert Humphrey; House Speaker John McCormack; Rep. Emanuel Celler, D-N.Y.; first daughter Luci Johnson; and Sen. Everett Dirksen, R-Ill. Behind Humphrey is House Majority Leader Carl Albert of Oklahoma; and behind Celler is Sen. Carl Hayden, D-Ariz.
AP file
Thursday, August 6th marks the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. Signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson, the act banned literacy tests, poll taxes and other discriminatory barriers faced by African-Americans in the south.
MPR News' Tom Weber talks with Civil Right pioneer Josie Johnson about how that law changed America, and where we're at today with voting rights.
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