Voting Rights Events

1870 Feb 3 The Fifteenth Amendment is ratified
The Fifteenth Amendment (Amendment XV) to the United States Constitution prohibits each government in the United States from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "r...
1913 Apr 8 The Seventeenth Amendment is ratified
The Seventeenth Amendment (Amendment XVII) to the United States Constitution was passed by the Senate on June 12, 1911, the House of Representatives on May 13, 1912, and ratified by the s...
1964 Jun Council of Federated Organizations Launches Freedom Summer to Register Black Voters in Mississippi
Freedom Summer (also known as the Mississippi Summer Project) was a campaign in the United States launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African American voters as possible ...
1964 Aug 24
to 1964 Aug 27
 Fannie Lou Hamer Speaks at 1964 Democratic National Convention
"All of this is on account we want to register [sic], to become first-class citizens, and if the Freedom Democratic Party is not seated now, I question America. Is this America, the land o..." —Fannie Lou Hamer
1965 Mar 9 Martin Luther King, Jr. Leads Second March from Selma to Montgomery
Immediately after "Bloody Sunday", Martin Luther King Jr. began organizing a second march to be held on Tuesday, March 9, 1965, calling for people across the country to join him. Hundreds...
1965 Aug 6 Lyndon B. Johnson Signs National Voting Rights Act of 1965 into Law
The National Voting Rights Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. § 1973–1973aa-6) outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Amer...
1971 Jul 1 The Twenty-sixth Amendment is ratified
The Twenty-sixth Amendment (Amendment XXVI) to the United States Constitution standardized the voting age to 18. It was adopted in response to student activism against the Vietnam War and...