President Lyndon B. Johnson meets with Martin Luther King, Jr. at the signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 Young Lawyer Who Helped Write Voting Rights Bill 'Star-Struck' as He Witnessed 1965 Signing Into Law
Joel Finkelstein was a year out of law school at Cornell when he received the call to head to the Capitol for the signing. Now 83, Finkelstein still isn't sure how he ended up witnessing the signing—on his 25th birthday—but figured President Lyndon Johnson wanted people who had worked on the bill to be present.
June 09, 2023 at 10:56 AM
4 minute read
Joel Finkelstein is an accidental witness to one of the seminal events of the civil rights movement, the signing in 1965 of the Voting Rights Act.
He was a year out of law school at Cornell when he received the call to head to the Capitol for the signing. Now 83, Finkelstein still isn't sure how he ended up witnessing the signing—on his 25th birthday—but figured President Lyndon Johnson wanted people who had worked on the bill to be present.
Attorney Joel Finkelstein, who was present at the signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, reflects on that historic event and how the legislation was born, during an interview with The Associated Press at his office in Rockville, Md., April 13, 2023. Finkelstein began his career as a young lawyer in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice in 1964. Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
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