Try To Pass This Literacy Test Given To Blacks In 1964 LA/Voting Rights

[thickornotatall]

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/11/12/harvard-students-take-1964-literacy-test-black-voters-had-to-pass-before-voting-they-all-failed/

[bigvalboy]

And you had to get everyone right or you couldn't vote...Now that is shameful.

[sincitymix]

Hmm.. makes me wonder about these Harvard students.. the instructions weren't vague to me. easy to complete.. HOWEVER... pressure of someone with a stop watch 10 minutes, fail one and your done? yeah.. that would be a problem.

[AdamSmith]

It came out during Rehnquist's confirmation hearings on being nominated Chief that, as an election volunteer in the 1960s, he had personally administered literacy tests to black and Hispanic voters at predominantly minority precincts in Phoenix.

 

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/08/john-roberts-voting-rights-act-121222_Page2.html#ixzz3osmAbVzZ

[gallahadesquire]

It came out during Rehnquist's confirmation hearings on being nominated Chief that, as an election volunteer in the 1960s, he had personally administered literacy tests to black and Hispanic voters at predominantly minority precincts in Phoenix.

 

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/08/john-roberts-voting-rights-act-121222_Page2.html#ixzz3osmAbVzZ

 

Was Rehnquist a Good Witch or a Bad Witch? I know he was the euphemism for "penis" in Myron Breckenridge.

[jackjackjack]

I know this topic is more of a political nature and should be in the politics section but I wonder who was governor in LA at that time. Oh yes.. It was John McKeithen, a Democrat. Of course from our old history classes....way back when... haha.... the Jim Crow laws were all implemented by Democrats.

[+ Funguy]

I know this topic is more of a political nature and should be in the politics section but I wonder who was governor in LA at that time. Oh yes.. It was John McKeithen, a Democrat. Of course from our old history classes....way back when... haha.... the Jim Crow laws were all implemented by Democrats.

 

Who was governor in LA? Do you mean Mayor in LA or Governor in CA?

[jackjackjack]

Who was governor in LA? Do you mean Mayor in LA or Governor in CA?

Sorry. The test they exampled was for Louisiana. I understand the confusion. Should have spelled out the state. But usually when I write the city of Los Angeles, I use periods... L. A. ...,of course unless laziness sets in.

[+ FreshFluff]

It's basically a frustration tolerance test, with an endless series of badly written questions designed to make people say "f*** it." What with all the circles and squares they make you draw and fill in, just writing out the answers to the 30 questions would probably take nearly ten minutes.

 

Divide a vertical line in two equal parts by bisecting it with a curved horizontal line that is only straight at the point of bisection of the vertical.

 

Draw five circles that have one common interlocking part.

 

I'll bet that these were plagiarized from some geometry textbook.

[MsGuy]

Back in the day, Mississippi believed in keeping things simple.

 

All you had to do to qualify was read and orally interpret a section of the Mississippi constitution of 1892. Of course the section was selected at the discretion of the circuit clerk and the interpretation had to be to his satisfaction.

 

Did I mention that said document was amended around 250 times over the years, which amendments sometimes referenced &/or modified &/or repealed in whole or in part other sections/amendments and were often so poorly drafted that the Miss. Supreme Court had to concoct a sensible reading just to keep the machinery of government cranking along. Bless their hearts, I'm sure those clerks did their very best to keep things fair.

[jackjackjack]

Back in the day, Mississippi believed in keeping things simple.

 

All you had to do to qualify was read and orally interpret a section of the Mississippi constitution of 1892. Of course the section was selected at the discretion of the circuit clerk and the interpretation had to be to his satisfaction.

 

Did I mention that said document was amended around 250 times over the years, which amendments sometimes referenced &/or modified &/or repealed in whole or in part other sections/amendments and were often so poorly drafted that the Miss. Supreme Court had to concoct a sensible reading just to keep the machinery of government cranking along. Bless their hearts, I'm sure those clerks did their very best to keep things fair.

Sounds like the present day Federal Tax Code.

[MsGuy]

Jackjack, not even Mississippi would ask a voter to interpret that.