C
Cojuanco
Guest
This week’s Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder overturned Section 4(b) of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which mandated federal oversight of changes in voting procedure in jurisdictions that have a history of using a “test or device” to impede enfranchisement. Here is one example of such a test, used in Louisiana in 1964.
Designed to put the applicant through mental contortions, the test’s questions are often confusingly worded. If some of them seem unanswerable, that effect was intentional. The (white) registrar would be the ultimate judge of whether an answer was correct.
There was little room for befuddlement. The test was to be taken in 10 minutes flat, and a single wrong answer meant a failing grade.
Oh, and while the form states that people who had over a fifth-grade education were exepmt from the test, the election judge decided what was adequate proof. If you were white, he’d take your word for it. If you were black, he’d reject even an actual college diploma.
So – shall we play a game?
Set a timer for ten minutes and do this test.
But remember – ONE wrong answer and you have lost your right to vote until the next election…
BEGIN!
Code:
After the end of the Civil War, would-be black voters in the South [faced an array of disproportionate barriers to enfranchisement.](http://www.americanbar.org/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/human_rights_vol32_2005/spring2005/hr_spring05_act.html) The literacy test—supposedly applicable to both white and black prospective voters who couldn’t prove a certain level of education but in actuality disproportionately administered to black voters—was a classic example of one of these barriers.
The [website](http://www.crmvet.org/) of the Civil Rights Movement Veterans, which collects materials related to civil rights, hosts [a few samples](http://www.crmvet.org/info/lithome.htm) of actual literacy tests used in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi during the 1950s and 1960s. In many cases, people working within the movement collected these in order to use them in voter education, which is how we ended up with this documentary evidence.
Most of the tests [collected here](http://www.crmvet.org/info/lithome.htm) are a battery of trivia questions related to civic procedure and citizenship. (Two from the Alabama test: “Name the attorney general of the United States” and “Can you be imprisoned, under Alabama law, for a debt?”)
But this Louisiana “literacy” test has nothing to do with citizenship.There was little room for befuddlement. The test was to be taken in 10 minutes flat, and a single wrong answer meant a failing grade.
Oh, and while the form states that people who had over a fifth-grade education were exepmt from the test, the election judge decided what was adequate proof. If you were white, he’d take your word for it. If you were black, he’d reject even an actual college diploma.
So – shall we play a game?
Set a timer for ten minutes and do this test.
But remember – ONE wrong answer and you have lost your right to vote until the next election…
BEGIN!
Code:
http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/blogs/the_vault/2013/6/28/Test1.jpg.CROP.article920-large.jpg
http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/blogs/the_vault/2013/6/28/Test2.jpg.CROP.article920-large.jpg
http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/blogs/the_vault/2013/6/28/Test3.jpg.CROP.article920-large.jpg [Louisiana Voter Literacy Test](http://www.crmvet.org/info/la-test.htm), circa 1964. Via the [Civil Rights Movement Veterans website](http://www.crmvet.org/index.htm).
