Voting Rights

After the Civil war ended in 1865, slavery was abolished and African Americans became free men. Even though the African Americans were free from slavery they were still not seen as equal by the Whites. Especially in the South they were segregated and treated harshly. The African Americans were introduced to a new set of obstacle called the Jim Crow Laws. These Jim Crow laws were a collection of states and local laws that enforced segregation. Using the Jim crow laws, African Americans were giving literacy tests that set them up to fail which prevented them from voting. The Jim Crow laws were enforced with violence and death, for example the Ku Klux Klan would terrorize black communities making people scared to do things such as voting. 

These Voting Rights Act was passed in 1865 as a result of these incidents. The Voting Rights act would stop and prevent voting discriminations based on race or color. The voting rights act made it illegal for local and state government to use the literacy test to prevent individuals from registering to vote ( voting rights act 1865: section 5a ). Another way of protecting minority freedom to vote under the voting rights act was by requiring the federal preclearance for all changes to voting laws in the regions of the country with the most aggravated records of rank discrimination against minority voting rights ( Ginsberg Dissent 2103). The Voting Rights Act resulted in a massive increase in Black registration to vote in the south to 54 percent of eligible African American voters ( A Dream Undone, NY Times 2015). African Americans also became more involved in government. 

Recently the shelby county vs attorney general holder court case argues about the Voting Rights act. Shelby county argues that section 4 and 5 of the Voting Right Act is unconstitutional while Holder argues that voters suppression that was outlawed by the Voting Rights Act is on the rise. I agree that voter suppression is on the rise and that the federal government should review voting policies of states. Minorities were finnaly given the freedom and protection to register to vote as a part of the population after more than a hundred years of discrimination and seggregation as a result of the Voting Rights Act. voting was guaranteed by the key provisions of the 4th and 5th section of the voting rights act which outlawed literacy test, any other schemes for preventing individuals from registering to vote and also requires any changes in the voting policies be reviewed and cleared by the federal government.

Before the voting rights act was passed only 7 percentage of black people in the southern states were registered to vote. The reason for this was because the southern states were using Jim crow laws to prevent Blacks from utilizing their rights to vote, Blacks were face with literacy tests that they would most likely to fail, poll taxes that they could afford to pay and other tactics that would prevent Blacks from voting ( a Dream Undone 2015). However after the voting rights act all the different mechanism that would prevent Blacks from voting were outlawed. A short time after this the percentage of black registration increased to 62 percent of black eligible. This sudden increase in registration shows that it was a direct result of the Voting Rights act. Now for the two (2) most important parts of the Voting Rights Act to be invalidated would mean that that southern states would have nothing preventing them from reintroducing new ways to prevent the minority from voting.

Although Shelby argues that preclearance of state policy toward voting policies is no longer needed, but, if section 5 of the Voting Rights Act is removed and states were free to make changes before the election without preclearance then this could become a problem ( Thernstorm 2013). States could easily reintroduce previously blocked laws that were blocked by the voting rights act. According to the Brennan Center some of the effects of the section 5 being removed were that many states made changes to their voting policies that could prevent minorities from voting for example taxas brought back its Photo ID requirement that was denied by both the department of justice and the court because it violated section 5 of the voting rights. This is a  reason why the federal government be able to review changes in State policies so that voting is free from restrictions that may prevent a person from voting.

I think the Voting policies of States that were known as state that were prominrnt with discrimination should be reviewed by the federal government so that voting mmay be fair. The Voting Rights Act has helped African American and other minority groups to truly become apart of government and it should be allowed to continue doing so. The Voting was the key that ended seggregation because of how it illiminated states efforts to prevent the minority from voting and monitor the states so that they would not revert to voters discrimination.

Citations

History.com Editors. (2018, February 28). Jim Crow Laws.  October 22, 2019, from https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/jim-crow-laws.

Brennan Center 2018.“Shelby County v. Holder.” Brennan Center for Justice, , https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/court-cases/shelby-county-v-holder.

Jim Rutenberg. 2015 (July 19). “A Dream Undone”. New York Times Magazine

Lopez, Tomas.(2014)“The Effects of Shelby County v. Holder”. . October 24, 2019, from https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/policy-solutions/effects-shelby-county-v-holder.

Thernstrom, Abigail 2013.”Commentary on Shelby County v. Holder”. American Enterprise Institute