What did the Voting Rights Act of 1965 primarily do?

• A. End literacy tests and allow federal agents to monitor registration.
• B. Create a separate department of voting rights.
• C. Abolish all poll taxes nationwide.
• D. Guarantee universal suffrage regardless of race.

Answer: (A)

The key idea here is that the act strengthened voting rights by removing barriers and giving the federal government power to enforce them. Before it, tactics like literacy tests were used to keep many African Americans from voting. The act made these tests illegal and authorized federal officials to oversee and, if needed, register voters and monitor how states ran elections in areas with histories of discrimination. This direct federal enforcement helped ensure more people could exercise their right to vote.

The other options don’t fit because this act did not create a separate department for voting rights, it did not abolish poll taxes nationwide (that change came with the 24th Amendment in 1964), and it did not establish universal suffrage by itself—universal prohibition of race-based voting barriers was already guaranteed by the 15th Amendment, with the act primarily enforcing and expanding that protection.