Last month, the U.S. celebrated the 60th anniversary of President Lyndon B. Johnson signing the landmark Voting Rights Act (VRA) into law. The legislation promised “to enforce the 15th amendment” and banned any attempt to “deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color.” Long hailed as one of the most important victories of the civil rights movement, and American democracy itself, this achievement is in jeopardy, as Republicans levy attacks and work to dismantle the VRA through the courts.
Yet, the decades-long effort to secure passage of the VRA offers pragmatic wisdom for safeguarding—and even extending—the gains enshrined by the law. While the VRA was undoubtedly a singular achievement, it represented the culmination of a long struggle for Black Americans, one shaped by victories, setbacks, and, most importantly, persistence.
Beginning with the country’s founding, Black Americans pushed for the franchise, citing the language of universal rights, freedom, and citizenship in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. While some Black Americans had access to the ballot in the antebellum period, most, who were enslaved, did not.
Calls for full voting rights increased after the Civil War and the abolition of slavery. As Frederick Douglass contended, the vote was the “keystone to the arch of human liberty.” The passage of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870, which enfranchised formerly enslaved men, seemingly brought the push for voting rights to fruition.
But this victory proved chimerical. By the late 19th century, white Southerners had regained control of state governments from the biracial coalitions that emerged following the ratification of the 15th Amendment. With the help of the courts, these governments disfranchised Black voters, establishing poll taxes, literacy tests, understanding clauses, and other measures to effectively deny them the vote. In Alabama, for instance, over…
