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243 points rcarmo | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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akira2501 ◴[] No.41909656[source]
It's possible. It was designed to be. It was used because southern Blacks actually did have a lower literacy rate than Whites at the time and this was seen as the most expedient "filter" they could create.

The real racism was in all the ways to bypass the test. Grandfather clauses, land ownership clauses, "demonstrated understanding" options. Most White people challenged by the test wouldn't ever need to actually confront it.

These weren't the only requirements either. You had to be of "good character" and "understand the duties and obligations of citizenship under a republican form of government" and to be able to "read _and_ write."

Finally even if you were Black and managed all of this it wasn't at all a guarantee that your registration or vote would be accepted. Sometimes this understanding would be communicated in an act of violence.

The test is a tiny archival curiosity created by a much more overt system.

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tptacek ◴[] No.41909659[source]
It's not possible. Several of the questions have multiple valid answers. It's pretty obvious what the scheme is.
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roenxi ◴[] No.41909745[source]
Which question(s)? They all seem to have single answers to me.

That being said, I would expect to fail this test.

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hn_throwaway_99 ◴[] No.41911195[source]
The first question I see is:

1. Draw a line around the number or letter of this sentence.

I have no idea what "the number of this sentence" or "the letter of this sentence" even means.

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computerfriend ◴[] No.41912031[source]
Good luck drawing a line around anything except a point at infinity.
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1. didgeoridoo ◴[] No.41913331[source]
It isn’t a literacy test, it’s a non-Euclidean geometry test!