THE ENACTMENT OF THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965 IN THE USA AS A CONTINUATION OF L. JOHNESON’S POLICY ON DESEGREGATION
The problem of interracial conflicts for such a multinational state as the United States of America occurs quite often. In the late 1950s - early 1960s of the XXth century, this problem again reached a critical level. For a long time, the question had been ignored by the authorities, due to the absence of full civil rights for a large number of the US population; therefore, the conflict demanded a prompt resolution. The first developments of the state policy, defusing the conflict in the country and accepting the protesters’ demands were adopted the Civil Rights Act in 1957 and 1960. However, the content of these acts was insufficient, and the protest movement did not fade. It was necessary to take more serious and powerful actions to reduce inequality, prompting both black and white people to stand for for the discrimination abolition. The legislation improvement became possible due to the policy of young president democrat John Fitzgerald Kennedy. In 1964 the Civil Rights Act was passed, that initiated the process of the US colored population desegregation. However, this action was not enough and new president Lyndon Johnson, taking the idea of building a «Great Society», during the election campaign, continued to modernize the system of public policy and as a result, the process of American society consolidation. The article is devoted to the process of improving the electoral legislation in the United States as part of the campaign against segregation. The Voting Rights Act in question was a continuation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The author considers the history of the Act adoption, as well as its significance, raising issues that have not been thoroughly studied in domestic historiography before, and concludes that this Act contributed to the further democratization of the US legislation.