The Voting Rights Act of 1965

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While on the Supreme Court, William Wrenquist was a reliable opponent of voting rights in all kinds of cases. Witnesses testified that they had seen him conduct so-called literacy tests for black and Latino voters. In part, with new legislation, LBJ signed into law in 1965, the Voting Rights Act. When he died, his clerk and protege, John Roberts, remains Chief Justice to this day.

Republicans claim the election was stolen. They use those claims to justify suppressing people’s right to vote. All of it happening amid a national reckoning on race. Rachel Maddow and Isaac-Davy Aronson tell the story of a time uncannily similar to our own – in the early 1960s. And how it’s both a parallel to our present moment and the origin of conflicts playing out today.

Featuring Guests:

Rick Perlstein, historian, author of Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus

Sherrilyn Ifill, Vernon Jordan Endowed Chair in Civil Rights at Howard University and former President and Director-Counsel of LDF.

Jim Brosnahan, lawyer and author of Justice At Trial: Courtroom Battles and Groundbreaking Cases