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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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K0balt ◴[] No.41913350[source]
Looking at the test from a purely analytical perspective, I only found one that had several correct solutions, the one with the numbers in the circles that directs it he subject to draw a line passing under and over different elements.

I’d be interested to know which ones you saw as ambiguous?

FWIW the test is obviously mostly about tricking the test taker, and not that much about literacy. Along with one question that seems possibly designed to filter out people with a non-Christian interpretation of the cross as a geometric figure.

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1. camtarn ◴[] No.41913641{3}[source]
"Write right from the left to the right as you see it spelled here"

Could be answered with:

right

right from the left to the right

right from the left to the right as you see it spelled here