Alabama Literacy Test (c. 1965)

Prior to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, states across the South commonly administered “literacy tests” to people attempting to register to vote. The officials administering these tests were almost entirely white, and had huge power over the tests.

Officials were able to select which questions from the literacy test each potential registrant would answer, and frequently gave white registrants the easiest questions while reserving the most difficult for Black registrants. Officials could also interpret the answers and decide that an answer was incorrect. Though proponents argued that literacy tests ensured an educated voting population, in practice, the tests were another tool to ensure that Black people living in the American South could not exercise their political rights.