Examines the Voting Rights Act which was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965, and describes the events leading up to it, the evolution of voting rights in the U.S., disenfranchisement of African Americans after Reconstruction, and the impact of this legislation.

Building African American voting rights in the nineteenth century / Xi Wang -- Disenfranchisement and its impact on the political system / Robert C. Lieberman -- The Supreme Court and Black disenfranchisement / Michael J. Klarman -- Rebuilding Black voting rights before the Voting rights act / Paula D. McClain ... [et al.] -- Making the Voting rights act / Stephen Tuck -- Extensions of the Voting rights act / Colin D. Moore -- Impact of the "core" Voting rights act on voting and officeholding / David A. Bositis -- The Voting rights act and its implications for three nonblack minorities / Pei-te Lien -- The Voting rights act and its discontents / Mark Rush -- Federal oversight of elections and partisan realignment / Laughlin McDonald.