Bending Toward Justice by Gary May

Author:Gary May [May, Gary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780465050734
Publisher: Basic Books

Senate supporters of the Voting Rights Bill examine the final vote tally. Left to right: Sen. Thomas H. Kuchel (R-CA), Sen. Philip A. Hart (D-MI), Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA), Sen. Mike Mansfield (D-MT), Sen. Everett M. Dirksen (R-IL), and Sen. Jacob K. Javits (R-NY). © BETTMANN/CORBIS

These were the Act’s achievements. But the Act also planted seeds for further disputes. Sections 4 and 5 expired after only five years, and therefore, future Congresses would have to reconsider them. Whether anyone sensed it at the time or not, these provisions of the Act, and especially Section 5 requiring “preclearance,” would lead to new, impassioned debates about its limitations and its future.

On Friday, August 6, President Johnson signed the bill into law. The ceremony included many of the luminaries of the civil rights struggle, though most of the soldiers in the long Selma struggle—Bernard Lafayette, Amelia Boynton, Marie Foster, and others—were not invited. The White House staff preferred the more famous figures like Rosa Parks, whom presidential assistant Joseph Califano called “the woman who started it all.” John Lewis was the only veteran of Bloody Sunday to be present.50

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