Voting Rights of 1965

Voting Rights of 1965

The 2013 political cartoon by David Horsey from the newspaper Los Angeles Times shows a newspaper article in the back titled, “Supreme Court Guts Voting Rights Act,” and a man wearing a ‘State Official’ pin holding out his hand to a trash can while telling a Black man to drop his ballot in it.  This takes us back to the Civil Rights, Jim Crow, and slave eras.  The cartoon’s context shows how African Americans living in the south are unfairly treated and being stripped of their rights by Supreme Court taking out important pieces of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  Horsey connects the history of African Americans in the South to what it’s like now in present time. 

In order to first understand the cartoon, a person must know United States and African American history.  According to the Congress of Racial Equality web page, African Americans after Reconstruction faced difficulties with voting even after the Voting Right of 1965 had given them the right to vote. In order to vote, the Southern blacks went through all sorts of physical violence and harassment, therefore, the percentage of registered black voters was low.   Not only did they face negative reactions from the Southern whites, they faced obstacles such as poll taxes and literacy tests (“Voting”). 

            Horsey uses symbols in different ways.  One way he uses them is to show the setting of the cartoon, which is indicated by the stars and stripes table cloth, and the word “boy” in the speech bubble.  Both symbols set us back to a place and time, which is back to the United States in the slave era.  They are minor symbols, but are needed to know when and where the cartoon takes place.  Another way Horsey uses symbols is to help decipher the cartoon into words.  One of them is a star on a southern hat worn by a creepy looking man, symbolizing that he is a sheriff.  The star is an important symbol because it is needed to show the systematic denial of voting rights to the African Americans in the south. 

Not only are symbols in the cartoon important, Horsey’s use of exaggeration also helps viewers determine the cartoon’s meaning.  He exaggerates that man’s face with the star on his hat making him appear as if he is evil and up to no good.  This exaggeration suggests that the men in the back are supposed to be trained to fight for justice and enforce the law, but in the cartoon they are the ones gutting the rights of the African Americans.

Although the cartoon may lack features such as iconography, visual irony, caricature, and captions, Horsey sends his message out by using exaggeration of facial features and using symbols.  He is able to point out and suggest the unfairness towards African Americans in the southern states and who the top contributors are.  He shows what is wrong with the systematic denial of voting rights in the southern state towards African Americans.  Horsey relies on the exaggeration and symbols of his cartoon as key points to understanding his drawing.    

       

Work Cited

"Voting Rights Act of 1965." Voting Rights Act of 1965. Congress of Racial Equality, 3 Dec. 2010. Web. 13 Oct. 2013.