• Login
  • Register
  • FAQ
  • Contact Us
  • Home
  • Documents
  • Activities
  • Activity Tools
    • All Tools
    • Analyzing Documents
    • Discussion Topic
    • Compare and Contrast
    • Zoom/Crop
    • White Out / Black Out
    • Spotlight
    • Finding a Sequence
    • Making Connections
    • Mapping History
    • Seeing the Big Picture
    • Weighing the Evidence
    • Interpreting Data
  • Popular Topics
    • See All
    • National History Day
    • The Constitution
    • Sports: All-American
    • Rights in America
    • American Indians
    • Women's Rights
    • American Revolution
    • The Civil War
    • World War I
    • World War II
    • The Vietnam War
    • 1970s America
    • Congress
    • Amending America
    • Elections
    • What Americans Eat
    • Signatures
    • Nixon and Ford Years
  • Resources
    • Getting Started
    • Document Analysis
    • Activity-Creation Guide
    • Manage Assignments
    • iPad App
    • Presentation Materials
    • Webinars
      • Recorded Webinars
      • Live Webinars
MENU
DocsTeachThe online tool for teaching with documents, from the National Archives National Archives Foundation National Archives

President Ford's Remarks at the Signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1975

8/6/1975

Print
Add to Favorites:
Add
Saving document...
Your document has been saved.
Add all page(s) of this document to activity:
The Voting Rights Act of 1975, an extension of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, aimed to protect women and men in language minorities – including American Indians, Asian Americans, Alaskan Natives, and those of Spanish heritage – from discrimination at the polls. It required bilingual ballots and election materials in areas with significant minority populations and permanently banned literacy tests.

This White House press release shows President Gerald Ford's remarks upon signing the legislation on August 6, 1975.

Show/Hide Transcript

Transcript

For Immediate Release
August 6, 1975
Office of the White House Press Secretary"

The White House

Remarks of the President at the Signing of the Voting Rights Act

The Rose Garden

At 12:09 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Vice President, distinguished members of the Congress, and other distinguished guests:

I am very pleased to sign today H.R. 6219, which extends, as well as broadens, the provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The right to vote is at the very foundation of our American system and nothing must interfere with this very precious right. Today is the tenth anniversary of the signing by President Johnson of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which I supported as a member of the House of Representatives.

In the past decade the voting rights of millions and millions of Americans have been protected and our system of government has been strengthened immeasurably. The bill I will sign today extends the temporary provisions of the Act for seven more years and broadens the provisions to bar discrimination against Spanish-speaking Americans, American Indians, Alaskan natives and Asian Americans.

Further, this bill will permit private citizens, as well as the Attorney General, to initiate suits to protect the voting rights of citizens in any State where discrimination occurs. There must be no question whatsoever about the right of each eligible American, each eligible citizen to participate in our elective process. The extension of this Act will help to insure that right.

I thank the members of the Congress, I thank their staffs and I thank all the others who have been helpful in making this signing possible.

END

(At 12:12 P.M. EDT)
This primary source comes from the Collection GRF-0248: White House Press Releases (Ford Administration).
National Archives Identifier: 7340475
Full Citation: Remarks of the President at the Signing of the Voting Rights Act [Ford Speech or Statement]; 8/6/1975; Press Releases, August 6, 1975; Press Releases, 1974 - 1977; Collection GRF-0248: White House Press Releases (Ford Administration); Gerald R. Ford Library, Ann Arbor, MI. [Online Version, https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/ford-voting-rights-act-1975, March 21, 2023]
Return to ResultsReturn

Activities that use this document

  • The 19th Amendment and the Road to Universal Suffrage
    Created by the National Archives Education Team

Rights: Public Domain, Free of Known Copyright Restrictions. Learn more on our privacy and legal page.

  • Explore Primary Source Documents
  •  
  • Discover Activities You Can Teach With
  •  
  • Create Fun & Engaging Activities
Follow us on Twitter:twitter
Follow us on Facebook:facebook
Please enter a valid email address

View our webinars:youtube

Get our iPad app:apple
New Documentsshare
New Activitiesshare

The National Archives

DocsTeach is a product of the National Archives education division. Our mission is to engage, educate, and inspire all learners to discover and explore the records of the American people preserved by the National Archives.

The National Archives and Records Administration is the nation's record keeper. We save documents and other materials created in the course of business conducted by the U.S. Federal government that are judged to have continuing value. We hold in trust for the public the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights — but also the records of ordinary citizens — at our locations around the country.
  • All Education Programs
  • Student Visits
  • Distance Learning
  • Professional Development
  • National Archives Museum
  • Presidential Libraries
  • Archives.gov
  • National Archives Foundation




Creative Commons License

Except where otherwise noted, DocsTeach is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Primary source documents included on this site generally come from the holdings of the National Archives and are in the public domain, except as noted. Teaching activities on this site have received the CC0 Public Domain Dedication; authors have waived all copyright and related rights to the extent possible under the law. See our legal and privacy page for full terms and conditions.