Johnson signs Voting Rights Act, placing Alabama under federal preclearance for all election changes

President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act on August 6, 1965, outlawing discriminatory voting practices and placing Alabama and other historically discriminatory states under Section 5 federal preclearance. Any change to voting laws or procedures in covered states required advance approval from the DOJ or a federal court before taking effect. The law passed in the aftermath of the Selma-to-Montgomery marches, where Alabama state troopers had beaten peaceful marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 7, 1965.