A Resolution commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, recognizing its pivotal role in securing equal voting rights for African Americans and other marginalized groups, and advancing civil rights in the United States.

A Resolution commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, recognizing its pivotal role in securing equal voting rights for African Americans and other marginalized groups, and advancing civil rights in the United States. WHEREAS, In 1870, the 15th Amendment of the Constitution was confirmed, declaring that “[t]he right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude”; and WHEREAS, Voting rights of Black people have been debated and suppressed - sometimes with physical violence - since the founding of the United States, when the 1787 Constitutional Convention stated that Black people counted as three-fifths of a human being; and WHEREAS, Although the 15th Amendment was ratified, discriminatory practices - such as literacy tests and misleading tactics - were created by elected officials in the South to disenfranchise Black voters, exploiting loopholes in the 15 th Amendment; and WHEREAS, Americans recognized the persistence of voter suppression and worked to improve the 15 th Amendment to account for the loopholes exploited by Southern elected officials; heroes such as Martin Luther King, John Lewis, and Malcolm X emerged to lead protests and a societal movement to fight this inequality; and WHEREAS, The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was brought to Congress after years of protesting including the protest in Selma Alabama, commonly known…