The Charleston School of Law commemorated the 60th anniversary of the passage of the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Voting Rights Act (1965) on Wednesday at the Charleston Museum Auditorium. 

Armand Derfner, attorney and Scholar-in-Residence spoke to Charleston Law students about the significance and impact of these historic events.

Derfner, the author of the book Justice Deferred: Race and the Supreme Court, said he was initially drawn to voting rights because, “The Voting Rights Act had just passed and people in Mississippi and South Carolina and people were dying to vote — literally dying to vote — and it seemed to be the center of everything at the time.”

With more than one-half century of legal experience, Derfner told Charleston Law students that despite challenges in today’s voting process, the United States is making progress. 

“In this country we’ve had a relatively low voting participation,” he said. “But a lot of that is because we’ve had barriers: You have to live in a place for a year before you can register to vote, you have to register six months ahead of time, in some places you have to pay poll taxes, pass literacy tests, all kinds of things.”

But Derfner is encouraged that more people have the desire to vote.

“I’ve seen things happen in my lifetime that I never thought I’d see,” he said. “More and more people want to vote and more people are voting, and that has to be a good thing.”

Charleston Law students Jazmyne Gleaton (3L) and Mariah Rodriguez (3L) moderated the event and William Spainhour (1L) led the Q & A session. The event was part of the Law School’s Professionalism Series.