From the University of San Francisco (http://www.usfca.edu/fac-staff/hancock/pol204/history.htm)

1787

The passage of the U.S. Constitution giving white male property owners age 21 and over the right to vote.

1807 – 1843

Series of acts that changed voting requirments so that all white men 21 and older could vote.

1870

The 15^th Amendment guaranteed the right to vote to all men that were 21 or older regardless of race or ethnic background.

1920

The 19^th Amendment gave women age 21 and older the right to vote.

1964

The 24^th Amendment made it illegal for states to charge poll tax to voters.

1965

The Voting Rights Act authorized the federal government to take over registration of voters in areas where state officials had regularly prevented blacks and other minorities from registering to vote or cast their ballots through usage of literacy tests, grandfather clauses, and intimidation tactics. This Act enforced provisions previously guaranteed in the 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th Amendments almost a century earlier.

1971

The 26^th Amendment lowered the voting age across the nation to 18.

1982

The Voting Rights Act Amendments extended right to vote guarantees given in the 1965 legislation. Further provisions for Americans with disabilities, voters not able to read and write, and those not fluent in English were added to insure their freedoms.

1993

The National Voter Registration Act (Motor Voter) expanded the opportunity for convenient voter registration for every person of voting age by increasing the number of active government agencies serving as registries. The departments of Safety, Health, human Services, Mental Health and Retardation, and Veteran’s Affairs are required to include voter registration applications with their own department’s forms. Other government offices such as libraries, post offices, county clerk offices, and the Registrar of Deeds will also have voter forms available to the public.

1994

The Tennessee Early Voting Act replaced the previous absentee voting system used for the state. Tennesseans now have a period of 15 days in which to vote early before the actual election day without declaring a reason for this early casting of votes. Voters using this opportunity may vote at their county election office or any one of its satellite locations in that county during their posted hours of operation.

 

Vote and we become stronger and if you stay home and don’t vote, the rich hold us and our children and grandchildren captive.Tuesday is election day. Get out and vote. It is the right and responsible thing to do.

 

 

From the ACLU  (https://www.aclu.org/timeline-history-voting-rights-act)

1867

1866 Civil Rights Act of 1866 grants citizenship, but not the right to vote, to all native-born Americans.

1896

Louisiana passes “grandfather clauses” to keep former slaves and their descendants from voting. As a result, registered black voters drops from 44.8%…

1964

Poll taxes are outlawed with the adoption of the 24th Amendment.

1965

President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act into law, permanently barring barriers to political participation by racial and ethnic minorities, prohibiting any election practice that denies the right to vote on account of race… (Video)

1970

President Richard Nixon signed an extension of the Voting Rights Act.

Nixon: “The Voting Rights Act of 1965 has opened participation in the political process.”

1975

President Gerald Ford signed an extension of the Voting Rights Act.

1990

Due, in part, to the enforcement of the Voting Rights Act, the number of black elected officials in Georgia grows to 495 in 1990 from just three prior to the VRA.

2010 to Present

Since 2010 alone, the Department of Justice has had 18 Section 5 objections to voting laws in Texas, South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, Mississippi and Louisiana. (video)

2011

Restrictions to voting passed in South Carolina, Texas and Florida are found to disproportionately impact minority voters. (Video)

2011

Texas passed one of the nation’s most restrictive voter ID laws. Under the VRA, the state was required to submit the law to DOJ or… (more)

2011

South Carolina passed a restrictive voter ID law that would keep more than 180,000 African Americans from casting a ballot. (more)

2014

In January 2014, a bipartisan group of legislators in Congress took the first step toward developing a new formula and modernizing the Voting Rights Act. (more)

1869

Congress passes the Fifteenth Amendment giving African American men the right to vote.

1940

Only 3% of eligible African Americans in the South are registered to vote.

Jim Crow laws like literacy tests and poll taxes were meant to keep African Americans from voting.

1965

More than 500 non-violent civil rights marchers are attacked by law enforcement officers while attempting to march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama to demand the need for African American voting rights.

1965

By the end of 1965, 250,000 new black voters are registered, one third of them by federal examiners.

1972

Barbara Jordan of Houston and Andrew Young of Atlanta become the first African Americans elected to Congress from the South since Reconstruction. (Video)

1982

President Ronald Reagan signed a 25-year extension of the Voting Rights Act.

2006

Congress extended Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act for an additional 25 years.

2011

A record number of restrictions to voting were introduced in state legislatures nationwide, including photo ID requirements… (more)

2011

Florida passed a law that restricts voter registration and made cuts to early voting. The majority of African Americans in Florida… (more)

2011

Under the VRA, the DOJ blocked South Carolina’s voter ID law, saying it discriminates against minority voters… (more)

2013

2013 Shelby v. Holder at the Supreme Court. (more)

Tuesday is Election Day!

                                                                         VOTE! Be heard.

Each American needs to vote on Tuesday! It is your right and responsibility