Literacy tests, along with poll taxes, residency and property restrictions, and extra-legal activities (violence and intimidation) were all used to deny suffrage to African Americans. The first formal voter literacy tests were introduced in 1890.
When did literacy tests for voting end?
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.
What was the main purpose of literacy tests?
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.
What year could Blacks vote?
Most black men in the United States did not gain the right to vote until after the American Civil War. In 1870, the 15th Amendment was ratified to prohibit states from denying a male citizen the right to vote based on “race, color or previous condition of servitude.”
What did the voting Rights Act of 1965 eliminate?
The act banned the use of literacy tests , provided for federal oversight of voter registration in areas where less than 50 percent of the non-white population had not registered to vote, and authorized the U.S. attorney general to investigate the use of poll taxes in state and local elections.
What did the grandfather clause State?
A half-dozen states passed laws that made men eligible to vote if they had been able to vote before African-Americans were given the franchise (generally, 1867), or if they were the lineal descendants of voters back then. This was called the grandfather clause.
How long did it take for the Civil rights Act to pass?
The House of Representatives debated H.R. 7152 for nine days, rejecting nearly 100 amendments designed to weaken the bill. It passed the House on February 10, 1964 after 70 days of public hearings , appearances by 275 witnesses, and 5,792 pages of published testimony.
What region did the literacy test exist?
Literacy tests were introduced into the voting process in the South with the Jim Crow laws. These were state and local laws and statutes enacted by Southern and border states in the late 1870s to deny Black Americans the right to vote in the South following Reconstruction (1865–1877).
How do I pass the literacy test?
- Read – Read, read, read. The better the reader, the better the literacy skills. ...
- Brush up on your grammar and punctuation – Go through the exercises above, read the resource pages, watch the videos and take the practice tests.
What do the 15th 19th and 26th amendments all have in common?
Amendments 15, 19, 24, and 26 all deal with voting rights . Ratified in 1870, the 15th Amendment gave the right to vote to any male, regardless of race, color, or belief. ... Ratified in 1964, the 24th Amendment made poll taxes illegal. Poll taxes were taxes or fees charged to vote.
When did slavery officially end?
The 13th Amendment, adopted on December 18, 1865 , officially abolished slavery, but freed Black peoples’ status in the post-war South remained precarious, and significant challenges awaited during the Reconstruction period.
What did the Voting Rights Act of 1970 do?
The 1970 amendments included a nationwide ban on literacy tests and reduced residency requirements [link to tools of suppression] that could be applied in presidential elections. The 1970 reauthorization also reduced the voting age [link to AGE subpage] in national elections from 21 to 18 years of age.
Who passed the Voting Rights Act?
It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the civil rights movement on August 6, 1965, and Congress later amended the Act five times to expand its protections.
What made the Voting Rights Act of 1965 more likely to succeed?
What made the Voting Rights Act of 1965 more likely to succeed? It provided federal oversight of state voting . ... Some people thought that Medicare gave the federal government too much power over health care. Which of the following was part of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964?
Who did the Grandfather Clause benefit?
The Grandfather Clause was a legal or constitutional mechanism passed by seven Southern states during Reconstruction to deny suffrage to Blacks . It meant that those who had enjoyed the right to vote prior to 1867, or their lineal descendants, would be exempt from educational, property, or tax requirements for voting.
Are grandfather clauses legal?
1) A provision in a new law that limits its application to individuals or businesses that are new to the system , while those already in the system are exempt from the new regulation.
