The 50th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act

In addition to this being the 70th  anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, it also is the 50th anniversary of the passing of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, effectively giving blacks the vote in the Jim Crow South.

The United States has a history in which freedoms and liberties are slowly expanded to encompass more and more people.

The Declaration of Independence was brilliant, and held out an exciting offer to the world of a more hopeful alternative to tyrannical monarchs heading governments. The Constitution, and the Bill of Rights that was added to it, and set up the government, as well as certain rights that citizens could benefit from and rely upon.

But those rights at first were only for white, male property owners. Blacks, natives, and women were excluded, among others.

Eventually, these rights were expanded, slowly but surely.

Women got the vote early in the 20th century.

But whites remained the privileged class, particularly in the South, where white supremacy was basically the law of the land.

It finally changed with the Civil Rights movement, and culminated with a series of pieces of legislation that effectively ended Jim Crow segregation. The first was the Civil Rights Act, then came the Voting Rights Act, and finally, eventually, came the Fair Housing Act.

Today marks the half century mark since the passage of the Voting Rights Act, and we should honor it now, as many of the aspects of this act have come into question and been seriously challenged.

It was designed to ensure greater fairness. It should be honored on this occasion, and the spirit behind it should be remembered and emulated.