Voting Rights Act of 1965

Hello there. My name is Martin Luther King Jr., and I want to tell you about a very important time in my life. Have you ever helped your family or your class make a choice. Voting is a little like that. It's how grown-ups choose the people who will lead our towns and our country. It’s a way for everyone to have their voice heard. But a long time ago, in some parts of our country, it was made very, very hard for people with brown skin, like me, to vote. Some were asked tricky questions they couldn't possibly answer, and others were just told "no". This was not fair at all. I had a big dream that one day, everyone would be treated equally, with kindness and respect. A very important part of that dream was making sure every person could vote fairly.

To show the world how much we wanted this fair rule, my friends and I decided to do something big. We decided to go on a long, peaceful walk from a town called Selma all the way to the city of Montgomery, in a state called Alabama. We wanted to show that we were serious, but we would do it with peace and love in our hearts. Our first try was on a Sunday, March 7th, 1965. It was a very sad day because people who didn't agree with us hurt the peaceful walkers. It made our hearts heavy, but it did not stop our hope. We knew we had to try again. So we did. This time, even more people came to join us. There were people with black skin and people with white skin, young people and old people, all walking together, hand in hand. It felt like a river of people moving toward fairness. We sang songs about freedom to keep our spirits up as our feet got tired. We were showing everyone that you don't need to be loud and angry to make a change. You just need to stand—or walk—together for what is right.

Our long walk worked. It was like we sent a message across the whole country without saying a word. People saw us on their televisions, and they heard our songs. Even the President of the United States, whose name was Lyndon B. Johnson, was watching. He and other leaders knew that things had to change. They saw our courage and understood that the rules were unfair. A few months later, on August 6th, 1965, the President signed a new law called the Voting Rights Act. This law was like a promise from the whole country. It said that every citizen who was old enough to vote could do it safely and fairly, no matter the color of their skin. My part was to help lead this peaceful march and to remind everyone that love is stronger than hate. We showed that when people work together peacefully, they can make the world a better, fairer place for everyone. And that's a lesson for all of us.