Who has the right to vote in America?

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 28 August 2020

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Voting Rights Act of 1965, a landmark civil rights-era electoral law was designed to protect African-American and other minority voters. It was introduced to remove the many obstacles that were in place to prevent African-Americans from being able to vote. Many states, particularly in the south, used intimidation, local laws and so-called literacy tests to prevent black people from being able to register to vote. In 2010 Shelby County in Alabama attempted to overturn a key part of the law. In 2013 the US Supreme Court upheld their challenge. Now voters who are discriminated against bear the burden of proving they are disenfranchised. Farhana Haider hears from civil rights attorney Kristen Clarke who fought to protect the Voting Rights Act.

Photo Washington DC June 25. Supporters of the Voting Rights Act outside the U.S. Supreme Court. Credit Getty Images

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:08.5	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.
0:18.0	What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
0:24.6	poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.
0:29.7	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.
0:40.0	Hello and thank you for downloading the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service with me for Hana Hither.
0:47.0	Gotta wait, I will Rights Act was passed into law.
1:02.0	It was brought in to tackle racial
1:04.2	discrimination during elections and to guarantee the rights of African
1:08.0	Americans to vote. But in 2010, a county in the southern U state of Alabama challenged a central part of the Voting Rights Act,
1:17.0	arguing that it should have the right to change voting regulations locally.
1:21.0	I've been speaking to one of the lawyers who fought against that challenge.
1:25.0	It was very clear that this was the kind of case that could land at the doorstep of the United States Supreme Court.
1:34.0	It was very clear that the end goal for this county
1:38.5	was tearing down the Voting Rights Act,
1:41.7	which was quite remarkable when you think about the struggle
1:46.4	surrounding access to the franchise for black people in our country.
1:50.6	There are many people who deem Alabama to be the birthplace of that struggle.
1:56.6	Kristen Clark was an attorney with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
2:01.8	at the N-Double ACCP's Legal Defense Fund when the case was
2:05.3	first filed in an Alabama court in April 2010. I remember the day when the
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