Literacy Tests
Definition
Literacy tests were used as a requirement that voters demonstrate basic reading skills before being allowed to cast ballots. Like poll taxes, these tests were often used in the South during Jim Crow era as another method to disenfranchise African American voters.
Analogy
It's like having to pass an English test before being allowed into your favorite bookstore.
Related terms
Voting Rights Act of 1965: Legislation passed by Congress that prohibited racial discrimination in voting.
Segregation: The enforced separation of different racial groups within a country or community.
14th Amendment: An amendment added to the U.S Constitution granting citizenship and equal civil and legal rights to African Americans and slaves who had been emancipated after the American Civil War.
"Literacy Tests" appears in:
Subjects (1)
Practice Questions (5)
- Why did literacy tests impact African Americans more significantly after the failure of Reconstruction?
- Which group was disenfranchised through literacy tests and poll taxes during the era of the "New South"?
- Who was known for leading efforts to restrict immigration by imposing literacy tests on immigrants in the early twentieth century?
- Which law from the Great Society period banned literacy tests for voter registration?
- Which piece of legislation banned literacy tests and other discriminatory methods used to prevent African Americans from exercising their right to vote?
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