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<img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1120293 native-lazyload-js-fallback" alt="" width="920" height="1334" loading="lazy" src="https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191430/cf10083a-fc0b-4a26-b321-1f63373f6c22.avif" srcset="https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191430/cf10083a-fc0b-4a26-b321-1f63373f6c22.avif 920w, https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191430/cf10083a-fc0b-4a26-b321-1f63373f6c22-248x360.avif 248w, https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191430/cf10083a-fc0b-4a26-b321-1f63373f6c22-706x1024.avif 706w, https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191430/cf10083a-fc0b-4a26-b321-1f63373f6c22-166x240.avif 166w, https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191430/cf10083a-fc0b-4a26-b321-1f63373f6c22-768x1114.avif 768w" data-sizes="(max-width: 920px) 100vw, 920px">
<img loading="lazy" fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1120293" src="https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191430/cf10083a-fc0b-4a26-b321-1f63373f6c22.avif" alt="" width="920" height="1334" srcset="https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191430/cf10083a-fc0b-4a26-b321-1f63373f6c22.avif 920w, https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191430/cf10083a-fc0b-4a26-b321-1f63373f6c22-248x360.avif 248w, https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191430/cf10083a-fc0b-4a26-b321-1f63373f6c22-706x1024.avif 706w, https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191430/cf10083a-fc0b-4a26-b321-1f63373f6c22-166x240.avif 166w, https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191430/cf10083a-fc0b-4a26-b321-1f63373f6c22-768x1114.avif 768w" sizes="(max-width: 920px) 100vw, 920px"/>
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<p>Within the pages of William Faulkner’s 1938 novel, <a href="https://amzn.to/3NwnMlg"><em>The Unvanquished</em></a>, we witness the relentless Colonel Sartoris undertake extreme measures to block the election of a black Republican candidate post-Civil War. His actions involve destroying ballots cast by black voters and violently confronting Northern carpetbaggers. Such overt tactics were far from uncommon in the Reconstruction-era South. However, as time went on, voter suppression strategies evolved. By the mid-1900s, the Jim Crow South leaned heavily on insurmountable literacy tests designed to obstruct fair elections.</p>
<p>As <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2013/06/28/voting_rights_and_the_supreme_court_the_impossible_literacy_test_louisiana.html">Rebecca Onion explains at <em>Slate</em></a>, these literacy tests were ostensibly meant for both white and black voters without proven educational backgrounds (customarily up to fifth grade). Yet, in reality, they disproportionately targeted black individuals.</p>
<p>Moreover, these tests were often manipulated to favor certain outcomes. Registrars could administer either a simple or a complex version of the test—and grade them differently. Consider, for instance, the observations of the <a href="http://www.crmvet.org/info/lithome.htm">Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement</a> about an Alabama test, which was exceedingly subjective, revealing more about the cunning of the examiner than the capabilities of the examinee.</p>
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<img decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1120294 native-lazyload-js-fallback" alt="" width="920" height="1259" loading="lazy" src="https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191516/ae77f4f1-7de5-429f-a21b-7b5d3649a7cd.avif" srcset="https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191516/ae77f4f1-7de5-429f-a21b-7b5d3649a7cd.avif 920w, https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191516/ae77f4f1-7de5-429f-a21b-7b5d3649a7cd-263x360.avif 263w, https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191516/ae77f4f1-7de5-429f-a21b-7b5d3649a7cd-748x1024.avif 748w, https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191516/ae77f4f1-7de5-429f-a21b-7b5d3649a7cd-175x240.avif 175w, https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191516/ae77f4f1-7de5-429f-a21b-7b5d3649a7cd-768x1051.avif 768w" data-sizes="(max-width: 920px) 100vw, 920px"/>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1120294" src="https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191516/ae77f4f1-7de5-429f-a21b-7b5d3649a7cd.avif" alt="" width="920" height="1259" srcset="https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191516/ae77f4f1-7de5-429f-a21b-7b5d3649a7cd.avif 920w, https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191516/ae77f4f1-7de5-429f-a21b-7b5d3649a7cd-263x360.avif 263w, https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191516/ae77f4f1-7de5-429f-a21b-7b5d3649a7cd-748x1024.avif 748w, https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191516/ae77f4f1-7de5-429f-a21b-7b5d3649a7cd-175x240.avif 175w, https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191516/ae77f4f1-7de5-429f-a21b-7b5d3649a7cd-768x1051.avif 768w" sizes="(max-width: 920px) 100vw, 920px"/>
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<p>The Louisiana test contained questions so perplexing that even the most educated could not consistently determine the correct answers. As the instructions dictated, “one wrong answer denotes failure of the test,” setting an impossible standard even for genuinely rigorous exams. Furthermore, voters were required to complete the three-page, 30-question test in just ten minutes. This test came into being in 1964, just before the Voting Rights Act of 1965 ended these blatantly discriminatory practices.</p>
<p>Delve deeper into the history of Jim Crow voter suppression through Rebecca Onion's original analysis <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2013/06/28/voting_rights_and_the_supreme_court_the_impossible_literacy_test_louisiana.html">here</a> and find an update <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2013/07/03/louisiana_literacy_test_update_the_hunt_for_the_original_document.html">here</a>. Additionally, watch Harvard students attempt to tackle the test in this video.</p>
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<img decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1120295 native-lazyload-js-fallback" alt="" width="920" height="1256" loading="lazy" src="https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191550/021b9032-9783-42e3-889a-caec9a10384e.avif" srcset="https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191550/021b9032-9783-42e3-889a-caec9a10384e.avif 920w, https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191550/021b9032-9783-42e3-889a-caec9a10384e-264x360.avif 264w, https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191550/021b9032-9783-42e3-889a-caec9a10384e-750x1024.avif 750w, https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191550/021b9032-9783-42e3-889a-caec9a10384e-176x240.avif 176w, https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191550/021b9032-9783-42e3-889a-caec9a10384e-768x1048.avif 768w" data-sizes="(max-width: 920px) 100vw, 920px"/>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1120295" src="https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191550/021b9032-9783-42e3-889a-caec9a10384e.avif" alt="" width="920" height="1256" srcset="https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191550/021b9032-9783-42e3-889a-caec9a10384e.avif 920w, https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191550/021b9032-9783-42e3-889a-caec9a10384e-264x360.avif 264w, https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191550/021b9032-9783-42e3-889a-caec9a10384e-750x1024.avif 750w, https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191550/021b9032-9783-42e3-889a-caec9a10384e-176x240.avif 176w, https://cdn8.openculture.com/2024/10/20191550/021b9032-9783-42e3-889a-caec9a10384e-768x1048.avif 768w" sizes="(max-width: 920px) 100vw, 920px"/>
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<p>Note: This post first appeared on our site in 2014.</p>
<p><strong>Related Content:</strong></p>
<p>See Harvard students attempt the Literacy Test from Louisiana used in 1964 to suppress black voters.</p>
<p>Discover how philosopher Richard Rorty eerily foresaw the results of the 2016 election back in 1998.</p>
<p><em style="color: #414141;"><a style="color: #366884;" href="http://about.me/jonesjoshua">Josh Jones</a> is a writer and musician living in Durham, NC. Follow him at <a style="color: #366884;" href="https://twitter.com/jdmagness">@jdmagness</a></em></p>
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