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From the 1890s to the 1960s, many state governments administered literacy tests to prospective voters, to test their literacy in order to vote. The first state to establish literacy tests in the United States was Connecticut. [4] State legislatures employed literacy tests as part of the voter registration process starting in the late 19th century.
Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibited use of literacy tests: Holding; A State may use a literacy test as a qualification for voters provided it is applied equally to all and is not intended to discriminate; it is part of its broad powers to determine the conditions under which the right of suffrage may be exercised. Court membership; Chief Justice
As late as 1962, programs such as Operation Eagle Eye in Arizona attempted to stymie minority voting through literacy tests. [citation needed] The Twenty-fourth Amendment was ratified in 1964 to prohibit poll taxes as a condition of voter registration and voting in federal elections. Many states continued to use them in state elections as a ...
The clause waived literacy tests and additional requirements for men whose descendants could vote before 1867, and African American men could not vote until 1870. Eric Foner, a Columbia University ...
Literacy tests were prevalent outside the South as well, as they were seen as keeping society's undesirables (the poor, immigrants, or the uninformed) from voting; twenty states still had literacy tests after World War II, including seven Southern states, California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York.
Voting in the 1972 Presidential Primary Election in Birmingham, Alabama. 1970. Alaska ends the use of literacy tests. [48] Native Americans who live on reservations in Colorado are first allowed to vote in the state. [54] 1971. Adults aged 18 through 21 are granted the right to vote by the Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
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Williams v. Mississippi, 170 U.S. 213 (1898), is a United States Supreme Court case that reviewed provisions of the 1890 Mississippi constitution and its statutes that set requirements for voter registration, including poll tax, literacy tests, the grandfather clause, and the requirement that only registered voters could serve on juries.