The Civil Rights Act of 1957

After Reconstruction, Southern states systematically stripped Black Americans of their voting rights through literacy tests, intimidation, economic retaliation and violence. But on September 9, 1957, President Dwight D.

Eisenhower signed Public Law 85-315, the first federal civil rights legislation enacted since 1875. Known as the Civil Rights Act of 1957 , the legislation came amid mounting pressure for voting rights.

In May of that year, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. joined thousands of protesters at the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom in Washington, D.C., where he delivered his “Give Us the Ballot” speech.

The new law created the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and a Civil Rights Division within the Justice Department , while giving the attorney general new authority to challenge voter suppression in federal court.

The law was limited, and discrimination continued. But after generations of retreat, the federal government had reentered the fight to protect Black voting rights.

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