This thesis has detailed the political activity of the influential Republicans in relation to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Contained in the thesis are: a brief description of events in Selma, Alabama in early 1965 that illustrated the continued existence of voting discrimination after the passage of three civil rights bills in eight years; response of GOP members of Congress to the awareness that previous measures enforcing the Fifteenth Amendment were ineffective; Republican efforts to enact a voting rights bill and an interpretation of Republican political behavior relating to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.