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A near impossible literacy test Louisiana used to suppress the black vote

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250 points rcarmo | 3 comments | 21 Oct 24 21:29 UTC | HN request time: 0.596s | source
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nneonneo ◴[21 Oct 24 23:35 UTC] No.41909665[source]▶
Note: there are questions about this test's authenticity. Per a note on https://www.crmvet.org/info/la-test.htm:

> [NOTE: At one time we also displayed a "brain-twister" type literacy test with questions like "Spell backwards, forwards" that may (or may not) have been used during the summer of 1964 in Tangipahoa Parish (and possibly elsewhere) in Louisiana. We removed it because we could not corroborate its authenticity, and in any case it was not representative of the Louisiana tests in broad use during the 1950s and '60s.]

Each parish in Louisiana implemented their own literacy tests, which means that there wasn't really much uniformity in the process. Another (maybe more typical) test: https://www.crmvet.org/info/la-littest2.pdf

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anonnon ◴[22 Oct 24 04:02 UTC] No.41911081[source]▶
This one seems deliberately difficult to answer correctly, even with the requisite civics knowledge:

> The President of the Senate gets his office

> a. by election by the people.

> b. by election by the Senate.

> c. by appointment by the President.

The Vice President is the President of the Senate, but the duties are typically exercised (save the tie-breaking vote) by the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, a Senator chosen by whichever party currently has a majority. It seems both a. and b. could be considered correct.

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burkaman ◴[22 Oct 24 14:32 UTC] No.41914708[source]▶
Question 5 is also quite (intentionally) ambiguous:

> The Constitution of the United States places the final authority in our Nation in the hands of...

> a. the national courts.

> b. the States.

> c. the people.

The answer key says c. is correct, but I think I would have answered a. You could also argue the States is correct, since they have the authority to amend the Constitution. The very concept of "final authority" is sort of antithetical to the Constitution.

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dragonwriter ◴[22 Oct 24 17:04 UTC] No.41916318[source]▶
There is no ambiguity, (b) is unambiguously correct (more precisely, it puts it in that hands of State legislatures).
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1. burkaman ◴[22 Oct 24 17:18 UTC] No.41916441[source]▶
What about the Supremacy Clause? And aren't state legislatures elected by "the people"? You could argue about this forever.
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2. mrgoldenbrown ◴[22 Oct 24 17:58 UTC] No.41916889[source]▶
State legislatures are elected by the people nowadays yes. But is that required by the Constitution or just a modern convention? I honestly don't know, as a 45 yr old born and raised in the US college educated nerd. The trump administration shenanigans revealed a lot of things we all took for granted to be mere convention or tradition rather than legal requirements.
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3. burkaman ◴[22 Oct 24 18:37 UTC] No.41917307[source]▶
Fair point, it's not just a modern convention but yes, I think in theory a state constitution could be changed to make the whole legislature appointed by the governor or chosen by lottery or whatever.