The Right To Vote In Selma

Voting was not an option for African Americans until decades after the constitution was ratified. While the constitution gave them freedom, equality, and civil rights, it did not protect them from being viewed as second class citizens and from being treated unfairly. Even to this day, they are still discriminated against and treated/thought of poorly, not only by some people but also by some of the authority figures. If we use our first amendment rights, I believe that we can start a change in how oppressed minorities are treated by everyone. More awareness has been brought to this issue because of marches and protests that people are holding almost weekly.

Imagine you’re living back in 1963, it’s the year of change, for the better. There’s a man, Martin Luther King Jr., who is one of the most prominent figures in the Civil Rights movements. He has two famous works, First, the Letter from Birmingham Jail. from back in August; a powerful response King gave after reading the criticisms of the clergymen of Birmingham. Second, there is the “I Have a Dream” speech from The March on Washington.

He led African Americans to freedom of voting and their opinion being recognized. According to the book, Constitutional Amendments, “The Act focused on 7 southern states (Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia) and outlawed restrictive voting requirements that denied the right of a U. S. citizen to vote because of race, color, or membership” (Pendergast et al. 313). Therefore the African Americans now had the freedom to vote and have a say in government decisions. Many organizations have tried to help form more freedom for African Americans by creating protests. According to article “Voting Rights Struggle,” “The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, various black individuals, and other civil rights organizations continued to work through the political and judicial systems to overturn the legal obstacles, and some progress was made including the outlawing of grandfather clauses (1915) and the white primary (1944)”

After the march the right for African Americans to vote in the south was becoming possible for them. Later, August 6,1965. The president signed a law, Voting Rights Act of 1965, stating the southern states must stop their practice of discrimination and not allowing African Americans to vote. James Meredith’s March Against Fear affected the present and future non-segregation between blacks and

In Mississippi, fewer than 9,000 of the 147,000 voting-age African americans were registered after 1890. In Louisiana, where more than 130,000 black voters had been registered in 1896, the number had plummeted to 1,342 by 1902.” These literacy tests were intended to only fail African Americans though the rigging of these tests. These tests were rigged to fail any African American who took the test in order to vote. Even though there was an amendment in place to prevent this, people still found ways to get past these laws and prevent equality.

After they were approved the right to vote, many states denied them this right or had civil service tests that they had to take in order to vote. During wars, they would recruit African Americans to fight by promising them freedom and equality when the war ended. King with his letter to Birmingham Jail wasn't the only type of civil disobedience going on. Rosa Parks cause the bus boycott when she refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white person. Parks fought to desegregate buses.

White people were getting worried that African-Americans would overthrow the government because of their rapid growth in population. Soon after, the Alabama government dictated that only the votes of white people would count. After that happened many African-Americans rioted against the government and white owned businesses. When that happened a man named Professor Gomillion filed suit against the mayor and other high officials saying it was against the 14th Amendment. When the suit reached Judge Frank Johnson he dismissed the case saying the state had the rights to draw a boundary of what he could accept, but after he dismissed the case it had reached the Court of Appeals and the ruling was upheld.

To accomplish social equality and justice has been a long controversial issue in U.S. history. Voting Rights Act of 1965 should be understood as a tremendous accomplishment today because it not only represent a symbol of the triumph of fighting social injustice, but also open the first gate for African American and minority to strive for more political power in order to create a “great society.”

The voting act was an act that supported that african americans have the right to vote like any white man. Another tactic used was the idea of Black Nationalism. African Americans united together was under Malcolm X and islam. Malcolm X gave African Americans a idea of black nationalism and that they are good and better than white people. Also SNCC, which used to have white members purged them all so that the African Americans can do things themselves without the help of any white men.

On April 16, 1963. Dr. Martin Luther King Junior, a persistent civil rights leader, addressed 8 white clergymen on the way they responded to the protests from nonviolent Negros. He supports this claim by first emphasizing that all of what is going on is part of their heritage and how everyone has rights, then by telling them breaking the law and standing up for what they believe in embodies the American spirit, and finally indicates the protesters are heroes and they are doing what they can to defend themselves and show others their side of what is going on. Through King’s use of tone, rhetorical appeals, and rhetorical tools he effectively persuades the clergymen and the people of the U.S, to fathom what is happening everyday around them and

After the 15th Amendment stated that the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, southern state governments began to require black citizens to pay voting taxes, pass literacy tests and endure many other unfair restrictions on their right to vote. In response to their rights being infringed upon, several groups led marches to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the mistreatment that they have had to endure. Six hundred marchers assembled in Selma on Sunday, March 7, and were met by Alabama State troopers who promptly ordered them to turn around. When the marchers refused, the officers shot teargas into the crowd and beat the nonviolent protestors; hospitalizing over fifty people. This event was televised all over the world and it disgusted the viewers who witnessed the horrific police brutality.

Although technically people of color had the right, white people were making it very difficult to register. When African Americans went to register they would be tested continuously, something white people never had to deal with. Only two percent of African Americans in the south could vote. Before the march from Selma to Montgomery there were many protests to try to gain fair voting rights. One man, Jimmie Lee Jackson was killed at a peaceful protest by a state trooper.

Even though the government adopted the Voting Rights Act in 1965, African Americans’ suffrages were still restricted because of southern states’ obstructions. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was important for blacks to participate in political elections, but before this act was passed, there were several events led to its proposal. The government gave African Americans’ the right to vote by passing the 15th Amendment, but in the Southern States, blacks’ suffrages were limited by grandfather clauses, “poll taxes, literacy tests, and other bureaucratic restrictions” (ourdocuments.gov). As times went on, most African Americans couldn’t register their votes.

At the 1963 March on Washington, American Baptist minister and activist Martin Luther King Jr. delivered one of his most famous speeches in history on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at the height of the African American civil rights movement. King maintains an overall passionate tone throughout the speech, but in the beginning, he projected a more urgent, cautionary, earnest, and reverent tone to set the audience up for his message. Towards the end, his tone becomes more hopeful, optimistic, and uplifting to inspire his audience to listen to his message: take action against racial segregation and discrimination in a peaceful manner. Targeting black and white Americans with Christian beliefs, King exposes the American public to the injustice

This speech by Martin Luther King Jr. was delivered in 1963 while addressing the participants who marched with him from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial. The march was conducted under Martin Luther king Jr. and some other civil rights organizations against the social injustices occurring against the blacks and to provide them with civil rights, in that court rulings such as those in Brown vs. the Board of Education had already ended segregation in schools in 1950s, but their effective implementation was only disrupted by the discriminatory Jim Crow laws which would not be repealed until 1965. Additionally, there were not sufficient legislations to completely end preferential treatment to the white. King using pathos successfully touches the legal and moral aspect of equality, enshrined in the constitution, by repeatedly using phrases to emphasize his point, utilizing quotations in his address, by using specific examples as the basis of his argument and using metaphors to feature contrasting ideas. Martin Luther King Jr. stated the