Existing comment:
“AFTER ALL, WE’RE NOT AGAINST VOTING RIGHTS IN PRINCIPLE—ONLY IN PRACTICE”
As the U.S. Senate debated the Voting Rights Act, Republican Everett Dirksen, one of the bill’s initial sponsors, proposed an amendment excluding states where 60 percent or more of the eligible adult population was registered to vote. It would have rendered the legislation ineffectual. Herblock conveys in his cartoon that although conservative senators did not want to enfranchise African American voters, they were unwilling to make explicitly racist statements. On May 26, 1965, the Senate passed the bill without the Dirksen amendment and forwarded it to the House of Representatives.
“After All, We’re Not Against Voting Rights in Principle—Only in Practice,” 1965. Published in the Washington Post, April 14, 1965. |