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A literacy test assesses a person's literacy skills: their ability to read and write. Literacy tests have been administered by various governments, particularly to immigrants. Between the 1850s [1] and 1960s, literacy tests were used as an effective tool for disenfranchising African Americans in the Southern United States.
In Macon County, Alabama in the late 1950s, for example, at least twelve whites who had not finished elementary school passed the literacy test, while several college-educated African-Americans were failed. Literacy tests were prevalent outside the South as well, as they were seen as keeping society's undesirables (the poor, immigrants, or the ...
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. ... had to be completed in 10 ...
On August 31, 1962, Hamer and 17 others attempted to vote but failed a literacy test, which meant they were denied this right. On December 4, just after returning to her hometown, she went to the courthouse in Indianola to take the test again, but failed and was turned away. [14] Hamer told the registrar, "You'll see me every 30 days till I ...
Southern states had effectively disenfranchised most African Americans and many poor whites in the period from 1890 to 1910 by passing state constitutions, amendments and other laws that imposed burdens on voter registration: charging poll taxes, requiring literacy tests administered subjectively by white registrars, making residency ...
The grandfather clause, which allowed voters to automatically be registered if their grandfather had voted, effectively exempted illiterate whites, but not blacks, from the literacy test. [2] Blacks received the right to vote in 1870 under the Fifteenth Amendment, [3] so almost no African Americans at this time had voting grandfathers because ...
Case history; Prior: Appeal from the Supreme Court of North Carolina: Subsequent: 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.
Not one to shy away from fighting for the advancement of civil and human rights, Lewis, who served 17 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, played a pivotal role in changing the course of ...