Voting Rights Act of 1965

Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson hands Martin Luther King Jr. the pen he used to sign the Voting Rights Act of 1965 after attacks during the Selma to Montgomery March and the murder of voting-rights activists in Mississippi drew national attention. The bill established federal examiners to supervise voter registration in states that had denied African Americans' voting rights.

Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division