Act passed by Congress, at President Johnson’s behest, following the attack by state troopers and white extremists on Martin Luther King, Jr. and civil rights marchers in Selma, Alabama. King had been demonstrating the disparity between eligible black voters and the number registered in the counties around Selma.

The Act made all testing for literacy character, or constitutional awareness illegal, allowing only age, residence and citizenship for determining eligibility to vote.

Reinstating powers for the federal government that had not been seen in the South since Reconstruction, the Attorney-General was empowered, where necessary to appoint federal examiners to register voters.