African Americans And The Voting Rights

In 1965, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights bill which sought to make racial disfranchisement illegal. This act stands as one of the most powerful pieces of civil rights legislation within American history. However, before the Voting Rights bill majority of African Americans were denied the right to vote; creating a wide gap between white and black voters. This gap was predominantly seen in southern states due to the large African-American population. Today, voting amongst Americans depicts a very different image. African Americans have slowly but significantly stepped foot into America’s political empire, defining their right to vote as American citizens.

Between 1996 and 2008, the amount of black female voters was higher than black male voters by a range of 7-8 percent points. In 2012, black women again voted at higher rates than black men by about 9 percentage points, which was 6 percentage points higher than any other ethnic group. However, for whites, the voting gap was much smaller than blacks, roughly a difference of 6 percentage points. That same year majority of voters for just southern states were white (9 states) while black voters only made up four states. Although, recent studies show that majority of voters in confederate states are predominantly African-Americans with a small amount of whites, which has been relatively consistent as of 2000. Meanwhile, as of 2012 southern state voters that exercised their right to vote were mainly African Americans