The Right to Vote

The Right to Vote. . After going east for college and west for law school, and serving in the Army Air Corps, John came home to New Richmond in 1950 to practice law with his father, brother Tom and cousin Warren., In July 1960, John left New Richmond to move to Washington, DC to serve in the newly established Civil Rights Division of the United States Justice Department., Soon after starting in the Division, John traveled south to Haywood County, Tennessee and East Carroll Parish, Louisiana investigating voting rights cases. Those first efforts, and the many cases that the Division brought throughout the south over the next five years, laid the legal foundation for the Voting Rights Act of 1965., Photo captions: In November 1960, John took this photo of L.A.Perry of Haywood County, Tenn. Mr. Perry registered to vote in May, 1960. in July 1960, after farming the land of Homer Rainy for 15 years, Perry and six members of his family received a notice of eviction to move at the end of the crop year. , John presented this photograph and accompanying affidavit, and others like them, as evidence in US v. Beaty, et al., one of the first important voting rights cases brought by the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice. Prior to 1960, no African-Americans were registered to vote in Haywood County. By 1963, 2,300 African-Americans were registered.