TIMELINE: History of voter suppression in the United States

The first women’s rights convention that sparked the suffrage movement took place at Seneca Falls, New York. The event was organized by two abolitionists, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. They were joined by over 200 activists to protest unfair voting laws and treatment of women.

The 15^th Amendment is ratified and grants African-American men the right to vote. Federal and state governments cannot deny anyone the right to vote based on the color of their skin, race or “previous condition of servitude.”

In response to the ratification of the 15^th Amendment, Southern states employed poll taxes and literacy tests to deter African-Americans from voting. To ensure that the taxes and the tests did not affect the white voters, grandfather clauses were enacted to allow those who could vote before 1870 as well as their descendants to remain active voters.

Women gain the right to vote on Aug. 18. The Constitution states that neither state nor federal governments can deny a citizen the right to vote based on their sex. 

Voter suppression continues, American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. emerges to give the iconic speech at the Lincoln Memorial in which he calls for an end to racism and equal civil and economic rights.

24^th Amendment passed and guarantees the right to vote in federal elections in the event a person fails to pay the poll tax.

The law prohibits discrimination based on race, national origin, religion and sex. It protects individuals from prejudice in voting, public accommodations, the workplace and schools. 

Even after the Civil Rights Act was passed discrimination was still prominent against minorities in America. Martin Luther King Jr. led a march in Alabama from Selma to Montgomery in an effort to register African-American voters in the South. The march was televised and was met with intense violence and police brutality.

President Lyndon Johnson addresses voting discrimination by creating the voting rights act. The act prohibited literacy tests and other discriminatory practices employed by southern states to prevent African-Americans from voting.

The 26^th Amendment lowered the voting age from 21 to 18. The amendment came during the Vietnam War when 18-year-olds were dying for their country. People felt that if those men were old enough to fight and die they were old enough to vote. 

The National Voter Registration Act is passed and intends to widen the availability and eligibility of voters by making registration available at the Department of Motor Vehicles, and public assistance and disabilities agencies.

States such as Texas and North Dakota require a government-issued photo ID be presented in person when voting. Other restrictions from other states include laws that made it difficult for people with convictions to regain voting rights, purging inactive voters, voting periods cut from 45 days to 21 days and more.

The landmark Supreme Court case declared section 4(b) of the of the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional, removing preclearance.