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Jonathan Daniels Trail
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The Supreme Court on June 25, 2013 effectively struck down the heart of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by a 5-to-4 vote, freeing nine states, mostly in the South, to change their election laws without advance federal approval. The law had applied to nine states — Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia — and to scores of counties and municipalities in other states, including Brooklyn, Manhattan and the Bronx. Immediately after the decision, Republican lawmakers in Texas and North Carolina – two states previously covered by the law – moved to enact new voter ID laws and other restrictions.

The enactment of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870 extended the right to vote to Black men. Black women wouldn't be allowed to vote until the passage of the 19th amendment in 1920, and Black Americans continued to face discrimination in the form of poll taxes, literacy tests, white-only primaries in some Southern states, and outright voter intimidation and violence at the polls for decades. 

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was then signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote as guaranteed under the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Black Americans and voters of color face barriers to voting at every step of the process even today due to state restrictions like barring people with felony convictions from voting, and strict voter ID laws.

1 in 13 Black Americans--compared to 1 in 56 non-Black Americans--nationwide having lost their right to vote due to a felony conviction according to the most recent comprehensive state-level research from 2016.

Multiple studies have found that Black Americans and voters of color are less likely than whites to hold the requires ID to vote due to lack of access and are more burdened by voter ID laws.

History.com Editors. Voting Rights Act of 1965, November 9th 2009. Accessed July 25th 2020. https://www.history.com/topics/Black-history/voting-rights-act.

Liptak, Adam. "Supreme Court Invalidates Key Part of Voting Rights Act." The New York Times June 25th 2013.

Panetta, Grace . "Black Americans still face obstacles to voting at every step of the process." Business Insider July 29th 2020.