What did the Voting Rights Act of 1965 aim to eliminate?

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was a landmark piece of federal legislation aimed specifically at addressing and eliminating racial discrimination in voting practices, particularly in the Southern states where discriminatory measures had been employed to disenfranchise Black voters and other minority groups.

Prior to this act, various tactics such as literacy tests, poll taxes, and other bureaucratic hurdles effectively kept many eligible voters from participating in elections. The Voting Rights Act served to outlaw these practices and provided for federal oversight and enforcement of voter registration and election procedures in jurisdictions where racial discrimination was prevalent.

This act was pivotal in ensuring that the right to vote, as granted by the Fifteenth Amendment, was protected regardless of race. After its implementation, it led to significant increases in voter registration among Black citizens and played a crucial role in the broader Civil Rights Movement by empowering minority access to the political process.

The other options—gender discrimination in employment, age discrimination in the military, and discrimination based on sexual orientation—while important issues, do not pertain specifically to the focus and intent of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Rather, they fall under different legislative protections and movements aimed at addressing those respective forms of discrimination.