Civil rights leaders meeting with President John F. Kennedy on the day of the 1963 March on Washington: left to right, Secretary of Labor W. Willard Wirtz; Floyd McKissick, Congress of Racial Equality (CORE); Matthew Ahmann, National Catholic Conference for Interracial Justice; Whitney Young, National Urban League; the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC); John Lewis, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC); Rabbi Joachim Prinz, American Jewish Congress; the Reverend Eugene Carson Blake, Commission on Race Relations for the National Council of Churches; A. Philip Randolph, AFL-CIO; the President; Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson; Walter Reuther, United Auto Workers; and Roy Wilkins, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Abbie Rowe photograph. The Voting Rights Act of 1965. Prompted by protest demonstrations against discriminatory voting practices in many Southern states, President Lyndon B. Johnson on March 15, 1965, urged Congress to pass legislation "which will make it impossible to thwart" the voting rights guaranteed by the 15th amendment. 10 pages, 10 by 15 inches. AUG 5 1965 THE WHITE HOUS Eighty-ninth Congress of the United States of America AT THE FIRST SESSION Begun and held at the City of Washington on Monday, the fourth day of January, one thousand nine hundred and sixty-five An Act To reforce the fteenth amendment to the Constitution of the l'aited States, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this Act shall be known as the "Voting Rights Act of 1965". Spr. 2. No voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure shall be imposed or applied by any State or political subdivision to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color. Spc. 3. (a) Whenever the Attorney General institutes a proceeding under any statute to enforce the guarantees of the fifteenth amend ment in any State or political subdivision the court shall authorize the appointment of Federal examiners by the United States Civil Service Commission in accordance with section 6 to serve for such period of time and for such political subdivisions as the court shall determine is appropriate to enforce the guarantees of the fifteenth amendment (1) as part of any interlocutory order if the court deter mines that the appointment of such examiners is necessary to enforce such guarantees or (2) as part of any final judgment if the court finds that violations of the fifteenth amendment justifying equitable relief have occurred in such State or subdivision: Provided, That the court need not authorize the appointment of examiners if any incidents of denial or abridgement of the right to vote on account of race or color (1) have been few in number and have been promptly and effectively corrected by State or local action, (2) the continuing effect of such incidents has been eliminated, and (3) there is no reasonable proba. bility of their recurrence in the future. (b) If in a proceeding instituted by the Attorney General under any statute to enforce the guarantees of the fifteenth amendment in any State or political subdivision the court finds that a test or device has been used for the purpose or with the effect of denying or abridg ing the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color, it shall suspend the use of tests and devices in such State or political subdivisions as the court shall determine is appropriate and for such period as it deems necessary. (e) If in any proceeding instituted by the Attorney General under any statute to enforce the guarantees of the fifteenth amendment in any State or political subdivision the court finds that violations of the fifteenth amendment justifying equitable relief have occurred within the territory of mich State or political subdivision, the court, in addition to such relief as it may rant, shall retain jurisdiction for such period as it may deem appropriate and during such period no voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure with respect to voting different from that in force or effect at the time the proceeding as commenced shall be enforced unless and until the court finds that such qualification, prerequisite, standard, practice, or procedure does not have the purpose and will not have the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race or color: Provided. That such qualification, prerequisite, standard, practice, or procedure may be enforced if the qualification, prerequisite, standard, practice, or procedure has been submitted by the chief legal officer or other appropriate official of such State or subdivision to the Attorney General and the Attorney General has not interposed an objection within sixty days after such In the United States, as in other industrial countries, a nation of farmers was converted to an how Americans lived. One factor that The list of patents granted to now- trial and agricultural growth and, eventually, the style of American life. Inventors often made revolutionary discoveries without recognizing their importance. Alexander Graham Bell patented his telephone in 1876 as "Improvements in Telegraphy." Although he realized that the new device carried human voices as well as telegraph signals, he did not anticipate the major way in which it would be used. Significant applications of an invention often appeared only over a long period of time and were then buttressed by supporting devices, each carrying its own federal patent. The federal patent system was intended to guarantee inventors the profit from the initial development of their creation. The expense in Elias Howe's sewing machine volved in exploiting new machines and processes, coupled with the cost of maintaining exclusivity over existing patents, often encouraged the formation of huge corporations that dominated their field. Eventually a series of antitrust laws challenged these corporate monopolies. If the use of new inventions was difficult to anticipate, equally hard to foresee were the massive consequences on the environment and on what Americans came to call the "quality of life." One invention spawned another, creating new industries based upon seemingly unlimited natural resources. The mass-produced fruits of American inventiveness filled the marketplace, converting masses of citizens into consumers. Vast land areas became covered with shelter, transportation networks, industry, and mining operations. As the wealth of the raw land was converted into consumable abundance, the inheritance of future generations was often sacrificed, and raw materials began to disappear from their ancient depositories. The same industries that supported a high standard of material living created mountains of scrap steel and plastic, rivers of chemical waste, and clouds of soot and smog. Having long equated technological development with progress, Americans began to worry about conserving the nation's resources and to recoil before the grim byproducts of unrestrained or shortsighted industrial activity. Official recognition that water and air pollution and resource conservation were world problems led to the establishment in 1970 of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), charged with administering and enforcing a growing body of pollution-control legislation. Since the creation of the EPA, Congress has passed laws regulating pesticides, ocean dumping, solid waste disposal, and toxic substances, as well as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Noise Control Act, and the Safe Drinking Water Act. The occurrence of large-scale environmental disasters, such as the 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant and the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, and growing public concern over such problems as the depletion of the earth's rain forests and ozone layer and the effects of global warming and acid rain have given the EPA a critical and challenging role to play in the nation's future. Alexander Graham Bell's oath to accompany his patent application for the telephone, 1876. Described as "Improvements in Telegraphy," the device revolutionized voice communication throughout the world. 8/4 by 12/4 inches, detail. Child at a loom in North Carolina, 1912. Textile factories often became sweatshops supported by child labor and characterized by other forms of labor exploitation. Lewis Hine photograph. |