This article by Carrie Johnson is published by NPR. Here is an excerpt:

The Justice Department calls the Voting Rights Act of 1965 “the most successful piece of civil rights legislation ever adopted by the United States Congress.”

The law put an end to literacy tests, which prevented many people from registering to vote, in a half-dozen states, granted the attorney general the power to send observers to witness elections and gave the federal government the authority to preapprove voting and election changes in places with a history of discrimination.

Within a few years of its passage, the Voting Rights Act had paved the way for thousands of Black and brown voters to go to the ballot box. Bipartisan majorities in Congress reauthorized the act five times, most recently in 2006, when then-President George W. Bush lauded the law and pledged to defend it in court.

Read the full article here.