From poll taxes to grandfather clauses and literacy tests to modern day intimidation, barriers have long existed to keep African Americans from having the right and power of the vote.

Part history lesson, part call to action, advocates and lawmakers shared their divergent voting education origin stories as part of a recent discussion marking the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Secretary of State Dr. Shirley N. Weber hosted the panel last week, under the theme of “Celebrating Progress, Strengthening Democracy.”

“We want to remind folks of what the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is,” Weber said. “Those who lived through it understood the fight and why it was so very important for us to have it.”

Although the 15th Amendment granted Black men the right to vote in 1870, most Af

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