Can You Pass the Impossible Literacy Test Louisiana Gave Black Voters in the 1960s?
Back in mid-2013, the Supreme Court struck down Section 4(b) of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, a key provision in the law that mandated nine states with a history of racial discrimination, mostly in the South, to get federal permission before they could change their voter laws.
This affected the jurisdictions that have had a history of using a “test or device” to impede enfranchisement.
Below is an example of a test that was given in Louisiana in 1964,.
People were given only 10 minutes to pass this 30 question test, which had questions that were worded in an extremely confusing manner, and littered with spelling and grammatical errors.
If you got one question wrong, it meant you failed.
Good luck with the test below!
