Home / Voting Rights History
156 YEARS OF FIGHTING FOR THIS RIGHT.
This is not ancient history. It is a living fight – won painfully over generations and now under direct assault. Every milestone on this page was paid for in blood, sacrifice, and courage. The question for this generation is whether we honor that cost by showing up.
The Supreme Court rules that Black Americans, enslaved or free, have no rights that white Americans are bound to respect. This ruling strips any legal standing for Black participation in American democracy and sets the foundation for a century of exclusion.
SEVERE SETBACKThe 13th Amendment abolishes slavery following the Civil War. Frederick Douglass declares that slavery is not truly abolished until the Black man has the ballot. Within months, Southern states begin passing Black Codes designed to maintain racial control without using the word slavery.
VICTORYThe Reconstruction Acts require Southern states to grant Black men the right to vote. For a brief period, Black men vote in massive numbers, electing Black sheriffs, legislators, and U.S. Congressmen. Reconstruction represents the first period where Black political power approaches its true proportional strength. The backlash is swift and violent.
BREAKTHROUGHThe 14th Amendment grants citizenship to formerly enslaved people and promises equal protection under the law. The clause becomes the legal foundation for nearly every major civil rights victory of the 20th century – and later the tool used to dismantle race-conscious remedies in the 21st.
VICTORYThe 15th Amendment declares that the right to vote cannot be denied based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude. On March 31, 1870, Thomas Mundy Peterson of New Jersey becomes the first Black American to vote under its provisions. Southern states immediately begin the systematic dismantling of this right.
LANDMARK VICTORYThe Compromise of 1877 ends Reconstruction and removes federal troops from the South. What follows is nearly a century of systematic, legal, and violent disenfranchisement of Black voters. Poll taxes, literacy tests, grandfather clauses, and outright terror keep Black Americans from the ballot box for generations.
100 YEARS OF SUPPRESSIONThe NAACP is founded, beginning a methodical legal campaign to dismantle the architecture of disenfranchisement. For the next six decades, NAACP attorneys chip away at the legal foundations of Jim Crow, laying the groundwork for the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
ORGANIZING BEGINSThe Supreme Court rules that the all-white Democratic primary is unconstitutional. Thurgood Marshall argues the case for the NAACP. It is one of the first major cracks in the legal architecture of Jim Crow disenfranchisement.
LEGAL VICTORYAfter Bloody Sunday on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act on August 6, 1965. It bans literacy tests and provides federal oversight of voter registration. The results are immediate – Black voter registration in Mississippi rises from 6.7% in 1964 to 59.8% in 1967.
WATERSHED MOMENTCongress reauthorizes the VRA and strengthens Section 2, making it easier to prove voting discrimination by allowing plaintiffs to demonstrate discriminatory effect rather than requiring proof of discriminatory intent. This strengthened Section 2 becomes the primary legal tool protecting Black voting power for four decades.
STRENGTHENEDFor the first time in recorded American history, Black voter turnout exceeds white voter turnout – 66.6% of eligible Black voters cast ballots. The all-time high of Black civic participation in modern America. The backlash intensifies immediately.
ALL-TIME HIGHIn a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court strikes down Section 4 of the VRA – the formula requiring certain states to get federal approval before changing voting laws. Justice Ginsburg’s dissent compares it to throwing away an umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet. Within 24 hours, Texas announces it will implement a voter ID law previously blocked under preclearance.
MAJOR SETBACKThe Supreme Court upholds Arizona voting restrictions that a lower court found disproportionately burdened minority voters. In doing so, the Court significantly weakens Section 2 of the VRA. Justice Kagan’s dissent warns the majority is making it progressively harder to challenge discriminatory voting laws.
SETBACKBlack men under 30 turn out at just 25% in the presidential election – the lowest rate of any demographic group in America. The Black-white turnout gap widens to -16 percentage points. In Georgia, just 71% of Black men under 50 who voted in 2020 return in 2024. The crisis VoteBrother was built to address is confirmed by the data.
CRISIS POINTOn Day 1, the president rescinds Executive Order 11246 – the 60-year-old order prohibiting racial discrimination by federal contractors. Enforcement of voting matters moves from the DOJ Civil Rights Division to the Criminal Division. Voter roll purges accelerate across Republican-controlled states.
SYSTEMATIC ROLLBACK BEGINSThe 6-3 ruling makes it nearly impossible to challenge racial gerrymandering under Section 2. Justice Kagan’s dissent describes it as rendering Section 2 all but a dead letter. Within one hour, Florida Republicans pass an aggressive gerrymander. Louisiana suspends its own primary. Ten Southern state legislatures begin redrawing maps to eliminate majority-Black districts – putting more than 190 seats held by Black representatives at risk.
THE CRISIS IS NOWWhat This History Means Right Now
THE PATTERN IS CLEAR
The Supreme Court has weakened or dismantled the Voting Rights Act three separate times – in 2013 (Shelby County), 2021 (Brnovich), and 2026 (Callais). Each ruling removes another layer of protection.
From the 15th Amendment in 1870 to Callais in 2026 – 156 years of winning the right to vote, having it taken back, winning it again. The cycle ends when Black registration reaches a scale that cannot be gerrymandered away.
The window between now and the 2026 midterms is the most critical registration period since the VRA was signed. Maps are being redrawn right now. Register before those maps are locked in.
THEY FOUGHT FOR THIS RIGHT. CLAIM IT.
Every name on this timeline paid a price for the right you have right now. Registration takes 3 minutes. Honor what they paid.
Historical information drawn from public record including the U.S. Constitution, federal legislation, Supreme Court opinions, and documentation from the NAACP, Smithsonian Institution, LBJ Presidential Library, and U.S. National Archives.
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