Good morning,
Whitewater, Wisconsin’s forecast is for a clear day, with a high of fifty-six degrees.
The History Channel recalls that on this date in 1965, President Johnson addressed a joint session of Congress, and called for equal voting rights for all citizens:
On August 6, 1965, Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, which made it illegal to impose restrictions on federal, state and local elections that were designed to deny the vote to blacks.
While state and local enforcement of the act was initially weak, mainly in the South, the Voting Rights Act gave African-American voters the legal means to challenge voting restrictions and vastly improved voter turnout. In Mississippi alone, voter turnout among blacks increased from 6 percent in 1964 to 59 percent in 1969.
In 1970, President Richard Nixon extended the provisions of the Voting Rights Act and lowered the eligible voting age for all voters to 18.
The full text of President Johnson’s speech is available online.
Here is a portion of his speech —