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Dying to Vote in Mississippi, Part I

By 1965 concerted efforts to break the grippersuaded the President and Congress to
of state disfranchisement had been under wayovercome Southern legislators' resistance to
for some time, but had achieved only modestallowing the African American vote.President
success overall and in some areas hadJohnson issued a call for a strong voting
achieved no success at all.The murder ofrights law and hearings began soon thereafter
voting-rights activists in Philadelphia,on the bill that would become the Voting
Mississippi, gained national attention, alongRights Act. On the dawn of its 40th
with numerous other acts of violence andAnniversary, Congress is preparing for the
terrorism.Finally, the unprovoked attack onreauthorization
March 7, 1965, by state troopers on peaceful
marchers crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge inof key provisions in the Voting Rights Act
Selma, Alabama, on their way to Montgomery,that will expire in 2007.



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