August 6

The Voting Rights Act Signed Into Law

No Vote...No Voice has been the rallying cry of people of many nations.  On August 6, 1965, African Americans in the United States witnessed the signing of one of the most monumental pieces of civil rights legislation ever enacted in this country "The Voting Rights Act of 1965". The US Senate passed the Voting Rights Bill (77-19) on May 26th of 1965.   It passed the US House with Amendment on July 9, 1965 (333-85) and President Johnson signed it into law on August 6, 1965.  The bill was designed with legal enforcement to insure the voting rights of all Americans guaranteed through the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.

President Johnson and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. discuss Voting Rights among other things during a telephone conversation on January 15, 1965.