As a direct result of the efforts of VEP, SCLC, NAACP, SNCC and various other civil rights organizations, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on August 6, 1965–a little over 100 years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation and 95 years after the 15th Amendment granted African American men the right to vote. This law aided in dismembering the “legal barriers" [poll tax, literacy test, etc.] at state and local levels that prevented African Americans from participation in voting.