A History of the Civil Rights Movement

FEDERAL LAWS PROTECT CIVIL RIGHTS

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President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Watching are many civil rights leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King, NAACP president Roy Wilkins, Vivian Malone, and Rosa Parks.

were escorted by the Alabama National Guard. On March 25, when the marchers reached the state capital, they numbered 25,000. The news media reported on the voting rights march. And there was growing public support to remove obstacles that prevented blacks from voting. That August, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act. It called for federal workers to register black voters. And it prohibited the use of the lit eracy test as a condition for voting. On August 6, 1965, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law. As a result, the number of African-Americans registered to vote soared throughout the nation. By the end of 1965, a quarter of a million new black voters had been registered.