An Early Voice for Young People: National Youth Organization Demands Vote for 18-Year-Olds

A quarter of a century before the Twenty-sixth Amendment to the Constitution granted 18-year-olds the right to vote, the National Youth Organization on this day demanded it.

The group had a broad progressive agenda, and on this day also called for full civil rights for African-Americans.

Eighteen-year-olds did not get the vote until the Twenty-sixth Amendment, which President Richard Nixon signed on July 5, 1971.

Learn more: Ari Berman, Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America (2015)

And more: Alexander Keyssar: The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in America (2000)

Read about current efforts to suppress voting by African-American, Latinos, and poor people here

Topics: Twenty-sixth Amendment / No Comments