Literacy test, exam for assessing a person’s ability to read and write. In addition to evaluating students in the classroom, literacy tests have historically been used by some countries to exclude people of a particular race or social class from voting or immigrating.

Dec 22, 2023 · Southern states created elaborate voter registration procedures or “voting literacy tests” that determined whether the voter in question was literate enough to cast their ballot. Of course, these voting literacy tests were administered …

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.

Proponents of tests to prove an applicant’s ability to read and understand English claimed that the exams ensured an educated and informed electorate. In practice they were used to disqualify immigrants and the poor, who had less education. In the South they were used to prevent African Americans from registering to vote.

Jun 28, 2013 · 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 ...

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 abolished literacy tests and poll taxes designed to disenfranchise African American voters and gave the federal government the authority to take over voter registration in counties with a pattern of persistent discrimination.

Sep 22, 2020 · A literacy test measures a person’s proficiency in reading and writing. Beginning in the 19th century, literacy tests were used in the voter registration process in southern states of the U.S. with the intent to disenfranchise Black voters.

Feb 8, 2022 · This act was signed into law on August 6, 1965, by President Lyndon Johnson. It outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting.

Literacy tests were tools used primarily in the Southern United States to disenfranchise African American voters and, in some cases, poor white voters by requiring them to demonstrate reading and writing skills before being allowed to vote.

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.