| Date: |
Friday, December 15, 2000
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| Question/Topic: |
Could you please tell us in what year, and under what
legislation, did African-Americans get the right to vote
in the state of Florida?
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| Answer/Pointer: |
African-American voting rights were granted by the Fifteenth
Amendment, which was passed immediately after the Civil
War. The basic prohibition against discrimination in
voting is contained in the Fifteenth Amendment and in the
Voting Rights Act.
President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voters Rights Act in
1965. Since this is a federal law, blacks in Florida got
the right to vote at the same time as other blacks in the
U.S. The Voters Rights Act keeps in place a set of
"extraordinary remedies" designed to enforce the Fifteenth
Amendment at state and local levels.
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| Librarian: |
SLF
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| Comments: |
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