August 6: TODAY'S INSPIRING WOMEN
Gertrude Ederle
Gertrude Ederle swam the English Channel today in 1926. She was the first woman to do so, and she broke all previously held records.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed today in 1965. It is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It was signed into law by United States President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the civil rights movement on August 6, 1965, and Congress later amended the Act five times to expand its protections.
Designed to enforce the voting rights guaranteed by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, the Act secured the right to vote for racial minorities throughout the country, especially in the South.
Alicia Dickerson Montemayor
Alicia Dickerson Montemayor, an American civil rights activist from Laredo, Texas, was the first woman elected to a national office not specifically designated for a woman as vice president general of the League of United Latin American Citizens. She was also the first woman associate editor of the LULAC newspaper.