STEVE INSKEEP, host: Forty years ago this week, the Voting Rights Act became law.  That      document was signed after one of the civil rights movement's more      dramatic events.  In March 1965, state troopers attacked protesters near      Selma, Alabama.  That day became known as Bloody Sunday, and it      galvanized the nation.  On August 6th, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson      signed new voting protections for African-Americans.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: President LYNDON B. JOHNSON:  They came in darkness and they came in      chains, and today we strike away the last major shackle of those fierce      and ancient bonds.
Forty years ago, Congress decided that existing anti-discrimination laws were not enough to overcome racism in the voting process. In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act. The law helped to tumble the segregationist status quo that kept black voters from the polls. President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act, as lawmakers and other dignitaries look on, Aug. 6, 1965. 