The youth franchise movement, in some ways, was an extension of or a derivative of other movements--student rights, civil rights, anti-war. The fact that young men (and a few women) were being drafted and sent into a war with no say in the policies that led to that war was a major factor---"old enough to fight/die, old enough to vote."
~Les Francis, Project 18 Director
ROAD TO THE AMENDMENT
"It was 1968. Aretha Franklin was the top-selling female artist in the nation, Night of the Living Dead was a teenage cult hit, and the Apollo 8 astronauts made history with the first U.S. mission to orbit the Moon."
"It was also the year Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated. And 16,592 American soldiers lost their lives in Vietnam, the deadliest year for U.S. troops in the 19-year conflict."
"It was a time of turmoil, dissent, and unrest, and even though young people were protagonists of the upheaval transforming their nation, those under 21 did not have a voice in the political system that ruled their fate and sent them to war. "
"More than 25,000 U.S soldiers killed in Vietnam were under the age of 20."
"For many activists the time had come to lower the voting age. It was now urgent to extend the full rights of citizenship to a new generation of young people who were working, paying taxes, and anxious to shape the world around them." (Logan)
"It was also the year Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated. And 16,592 American soldiers lost their lives in Vietnam, the deadliest year for U.S. troops in the 19-year conflict."
"It was a time of turmoil, dissent, and unrest, and even though young people were protagonists of the upheaval transforming their nation, those under 21 did not have a voice in the political system that ruled their fate and sent them to war. "
"More than 25,000 U.S soldiers killed in Vietnam were under the age of 20."
"For many activists the time had come to lower the voting age. It was now urgent to extend the full rights of citizenship to a new generation of young people who were working, paying taxes, and anxious to shape the world around them." (Logan)