Library exhibits 'Clean Elections: Sen. Williams and the Voting Rights Act of 1965'

2:55 p.m., March 31, 2015--The University of Delaware Library has announced the opening of a new exhibition, “Clean Elections: Senator John J. Williams of Delaware and the Voting Rights Act of 1965,” which will be on display from Wednesday, April 1, through Thursday, April 30, in the Information Room on the first floor of the Morris Library. 

The library joins the Association of Centers for the Study of Congress (ACSC) in a national celebration of the sixth annual Congress Week, April 1-7.

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The opening of this exhibition commemorates the 50th anniversary of the passing of the Voting Rights Act in the Congress and features items from the personal papers of Williams, who served in the U.S. Senate from 1946 through 1971. 

The exhibition focuses on Williams’ “Clean Elections” amendment to the Voting Rights Act, which sought to criminalize fraudulent voting behavior and falsifying registration information. The amendment passed 86-0 in the U.S. Senate on April 29, 1965. The Voting Rights Act passed by a 77-19 vote on May 26, 1965, and was signed into law on Aug. 6, 1965.

This exhibition includes constituent letters commenting on the Selma to Montgomery marches and Williams’ amendment, as well as some printed ephemera. The exhibition is curated by Tammi Kim, assistant librarian in the Manuscripts and Archives Department. The Papers of John J. Williams is one of the political papers collections held in Special Collections at the library. 

The library is an institutional member of ACSC, which was founded in 2003 to support a wide range of programs designed to inform and educate students, scholars, policymakers and members of the general public on the history of Congress, legislative process, and current issues facing Congress.

The ACSC encourages preservation of material that documents the work of Congress, including the papers of representatives and senators, and supports programs that make those materials available for educational and research use.

Modern congressional holdings at the library include the personal papers of Williams, J. Allen Frear, Jr. (U.S. Senate, 1949-1961), Thomas R. Carper (U.S. House of Representatives, 1983-1993), Michael N. Castle (U.S. House of Representatives), and Edward E. (Ted) Kaufman (U.S. Senate, 2009-2010). 

The most recent addition to these important resources is the collection of senatorial papers from Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (U.S. Senate, 1973-2009), which arrived in June 2012. 

The exhibition will be available online.