In photos: Voting Rights Act of 1965 turns 60

Wednesday marks the 60th anniversary of President Lyndon Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — a law aimed at ending discrimination and violence against Black Americans, Latinos and Indigenous people attempting to vote.Through the lens: To commemorate the historical moment, here are some images that led to the law and its aftermath that transformed the United States into a genuine multiracial democracy. South Carolina Black Americans vote for the first time in 1948. It was still rare in the American South at the time because of discrimination. Photo: North Carolina Central University via Getty Images Dallas County Sheriff Jim Clark waves a nightstick as he tells a group of Black Americans taking part in the Selma Voting Rights Campaign to leave the county courthouse in Selma, Alabama, Feb. 1, 1965. The campaigners told Clark they were seeking the voting registrar. Photo: Bettmann/Contributor via Getty Images Police officers attacked Civil Rights marchers in Selma, Alabama, who were attempting to begin a 50-mile march to Montgomery to protest racial discrimination in voter registration. Photo: Bettmann/Contributor via Getty Images Marchers, carrying state and American flags, pause for a moment of silence during the Selma to Montgomery march held in support of voter rights in Alabama in late March of 1965. Photo: Robert Abbott Sengstacke/Getty Images President Johnson celebrates with Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph Abernathy, and Clarence Mitchell after signing the Voting Rights bill into law on Aug. 6, 1965. Photo: Corbis via Getty Images Black American voters, able to vote for the first time in rural Wilcox County, Alabama, line up in front of a polling station at The Sugar Shack, a local general store in 1966. Photo: Bettmann/Contributor via Getty Images Students Christine Gaither, Jaye Mizelle, Gerelyn Jierguson, Sonja Jierguson, Edith Auery, Diana Boney, Lavern Williams and Mavine Foyner hold up voting pamphlets on the campus of North Carolina Central University at the Alfonso Elder Student Union in the 1970s in Durham, North Carolina. Photo: North Carolina Central University via Getty Images Civil Rights leaders meet with Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace, once a staunch segregationist, in his office in Selma, Alabama, on the 20th anniversary march from Selma to Montgomery, celebrating the 1965 Voting Rights Act in 1985. Photo: Carey Womack/Bettmann /Contributor via Getty Images Deputy Clerk with the Harris County Tax Office, Lynette Vezia, swears in volunteers to help get more Hispanic voters registered in 1991. Photo: Gaylon Wampler/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images A member of the Navajo Nation participates in the event "Ride to the Polls" in Kayenta, Arizona, on Nov. 5, 2024. Photo: Ernesto Benavides/AFP via Getty Images Asian Americans vote on Election Day at a Denny's Restaurant in Temple City, Los Angeles County, on Nov. 6, 2012 in California. Photo: Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images A frail Jesse Jackson takes part in a prayer (his hand is being held by U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters) when the marchers stopped on the bridge in March 2025 to remember marchers and John Lewis, who took part in Bloody Sunday in Selma. Photo: Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post via Getty Images

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