Within months of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 being signed, a quarter of a million African American voters were registered to vote. This photograph of a polling place in Alabama reflects the unprecedented numbers of voters that turned out.
The original caption states: “Negroes flock to this polling place in rural, Blackbelt, Alabama 5/3, as they vote in large numbers for the first time in history. Typical of rural polling places is the ‘Sugar Shack’ a small store in Wilcox County where Negroes out number whites almost 3 to 1.”
