What banned the use of literacy tests?

What banned the use of literacy tests?

It outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting. This “act to enforce the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution” was signed into law 95 years after the amendment was ratified.

What amendment does the literacy test violate?

the Fifteenth Amendment
1949Literacy Tests Are Ruled Unconstitutional The U.S. Supreme Court in Davis v. Schnell hold Alabama’s literacy test unconstitutional as it is clearly intended to deny the vote to African Americans and thus violates the Fifteenth Amendment.

What was the literacy test and what was the goal?

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 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).

Why was the literacy test important in the south?

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.

When did literacy laws start for African Americans?

“That gets disproven when African Americans were educated, and undermines the logic of the system.” States fighting to hold on to slavery began tightening literacy laws in the early 1830s. In April 1831, Virginia declared that any meetings to teach free African Americans to read or write was illegal.

How did literacy become a weapon in the fight to end slavery?

States fighting to hold on to slavery began tightening literacy laws in the early 1830s. In April 1831, Virginia declared that any meetings to teach free African Americans to read or write was illegal. New codes also outlawed teaching enslaved people. Other southern states passed similarly strict anti-literacy laws around this time.

Why was literacy important in the Civil Rights Movement?

As Roth points out, “Literacy promotes thought and raises consciousness. It helps you to get outside of your own cultural constraints and think about things from a totally different angle.” Freed Black people learning to read with white teachers in school circa 1860.