The Tax Reform Act of 1969 and the Undermining of the Voter Education Project

Abstract

This chapter cuts through all the dry, complex legal language of the 1969 tax reform bill to demonstrate how conservatives leveraged this law to undercut the VEP. Conservatives realized the VEP strengthened black voters, and they input language into the bill that would make the VEP’s fundraising and programming much more difficult. Ultimately, the Tax Reform Act of 1969 decimated the VEP, but the VEP continued during the 1970s under the leadership of John Lewis. After Lewis left in 1976, the VEP withered until it closed for good in 1992.