Jacob K. Javits Quotes
To me, the most compelling reason for lowering the voting age [to 18] is that American politics needs the infusion that younger voting would give it.
Jacob K. Javits, 1904-1986, U. S. Congressman & U. S. Senator (Republican, NY), Playboy, February 1968
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The voting age was reduced from 21 to 18, when 18 year olds were being drafted for military service and some were being killed or wounded. Many argued that a person who was old enough to die for America was old enough to vote in America. 18-21 year olds however have not voted in the same proportions as older citizens. The guilt emenated from the fact that 18 year olds could at that time be drafted to fight in America’s wars and perhaps die, but they could not vote.
At the time less than 10% of the Southern Blacks were allowed to vote. The result was that Southern segregationists were elected to Congress even in a state like Mississippi which had a majority Black population, The Southern segregationist bloc was large enough that with a few very conservative Republicans, they formed a coalition could block any civil rights legislation including voting rights reform,
The president had visited Baltimore in August of 1828 and found the campaigning at a feverish pace:
Jacob Koppel Javits was an American lawyer and politician who represented New York in both houses of Congress.
