Revisiting the 1965 Voting Rights Act Story aired: Thursday, July 13, 2006
In 1965 President Johnson signed The Voting Rights Act, designed to eliminate discriminatory hurdles to voting, such as literacy tests, and poll taxes. Although Johnson's historic signature approved the legislative centerpiece of the Civil Rights Movement, this election year some Republicans are challenging two parts of the act.
One of the challenged parts of the act maintains Justice Department supervision in states with a history of discrimination. The other requires interpreters and non English ballots in districts in which a certain percentage of the population does not speak English.
Charles Babington of the Washington Post joins us along with Mary McCaskill Young, the first African American Mayor of Kilmichael, Mississippi who says the Voting Rights Act worked in her small Mississippi town. We also speak with Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia.
Guests:
Charles Babington, the Washington Post
Mary McCaskill Young, the first African American Mayor of Kilmichael, Mississippi
Charles Bullock, University of Georgia
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