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A new day dawns: Voters, most of them about to fill out their first-ever ballots, line up at the courthouse, Camden, Alabama. 1966- “The Voting Rights Act of 1965 changed everything, outlawing literacy tests and other barriers. It made it possible for thousands of black officials to eventually be elected in the South, and it certainly helped in the election of two white southerners to the presidency. It was a large factor in the gradual decrease of racial tension throughout the South. In a rare show of unity, more than forty years after the Voting Rights Act was passed, Congress renewed the measure unanimously.”