One of America's most important civil rights laws was signed 50 years ago today

Thursday, August 6 marks 50 years since President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The seminal legislation made racial discrimination in voting illegal. But it also came after years of bloody, and sometimes deadly, confrontation between the African-American and white community.

These dramatic photos depict the dramatic confrontations that preceded the passage of the law, part of which the Supreme Court struck down in 2013.