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Why were Southern successful in using literacy?

Why were Southern successful in using literacy?

Why were Southerners successful in using literacy tests to keep African Americans from voting? Most African Americans had not learned to read while they were slaves. They couldn’t vote if their grandfather had not been allowed to vote.

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.

Was the Freedom Summer successful?

Was The Freedom Summer A Success? Voter registration in Mississippi was not greatly impacted by the Freedom Summer. While 17,000 Black Mississippians attempted to register to vote that summer, only 1,200 were successful.

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.

Why was there a literacy test for black voters?

Even after the Civil Rights Movement afforded them the right to vote, black voters still faced barriers. Southern states especially employed the use of a voting literacy test to dissuade black people from registering.

How did the southern states disenfranchise African Americans?

Through the use of poll taxes, literacy tests and other means, Southern states were able to effectively disenfranchise African Americans. It would take the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 before the majority of African Americans in the South were registered to vote.

What was the literacy rate in the south in 1880?

In 1880, according to the U.S. Bureau of Census, 76 percent of southern African Americans were illiterate, a rate of 55 percent points greater than that for southern white people. In 1900, 50 percent of voting-age Black men could not read, compared to 12 percent of voting-aged white men.

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