Description
After the Civil War, many states enacted literacy tests as a voting requirement. The purpose was to exclude persons with minimal literacy, in particular, poor African Americans in the South, from voting. This was achieved by asking these prospective voters to interpret abstract provisions of the U.S. Constitution or rejecting their applications for errors. This sample voter registration application, featuring a literacy test, was used by W.C. Patton, head of the NAACP voter registration program, to educate African-American voters in Alabama before they went to register to vote.
Transcript of the Voter Registration Literacy Test in Alabama
Source-Dependent Questions
- This is a sample literacy test used by National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to help prepare African Americans who want to register to vote in Alabama. Look for patterns in the questions asked in the literacy test. What are the questions mostly about? Why do you think that is?
- Which questions in this literacy test do you think are unfair? Explain.
- How might this literacy test interfere with the 15th Amendment? As a reminder, the 15th Amendment states that "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
Citation Information
"Sample Application for Registration, Questionnaire and Oaths," Alabama Board of Registrars, 1964. Courtesy of Library of Congress