LiberationPrimary SourceFBA Grio Verified Source

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Name: Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination
Author: Toni Morrison

United States Congress

1965

Liberation

3-Minute Summary

Prohibited discriminatory voting practices that had disenfranchised Black voters for nearly a century. Section 5 required jurisdictions with histories of discrimination to obtain federal preclearance before changing voting laws — a provision gutted by the Supreme Court in 2013.

Why It Matters

The Voting Rights Act restored what the 15th Amendment had promised in 1870. Its partial dismantling in Shelby County v. Holder (2013) demonstrates that civil rights gains are not permanent without continued vigilance.

Important Passages

'No voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure shall be imposed or applied by any State or political subdivision to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color.'

Where to Read

Congress.gov (free)

Verified: National Archives, Congress.gov

Key People

Lyndon B. Johnson

John Lewis

Fannie Lou Hamer

Selma marchers

Key Policies & Events

Section 5 preclearanceLiteracy test banFederal examinersShelby County v. Holder (2013)

Related FBA Leaders

John Lewis Fannie Lou Hamer

Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination

Toni Morrison

1992

Culture

3-Minute Summary

Morrison's literary criticism examining how the presence of Black people — the 'Africanist presence' — has shaped American literature, even in works that appear to be exclusively about white characters. She argues that American literature cannot be understood without understanding its racial subtext.

Why It Matters

Morrison demonstrates that FBA experience is not peripheral to American culture but central to it — that white American identity was constructed in relation to Black presence. This argument reframes the entire American literary canon.

Important Passages

'I want to suggest that these concerns — the ones lodged in the literature about a dark, abiding, signing Africanist presence — may be among the most telling and transformative in the history of American literature.'

Where to Read

Available at public libraries and online booksellers

Key People

Toni Morrison

Edgar Allan Poe

Ernest Hemingway

Willa Cather

All 100 Readings Culture Collection