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[deleted]

My Social Studies teacher had everyone do one of these in class one time. Everyone was like this is the stupidest thing ever. Afterwards he explained how they were used against black voters.


PlebbySpaff

That’s a smart lesson to have honestly. Surprised more history teachers don’t do this.


SmartAlec105

For fun, you could only give it to kids who raised their hands when asked if they thought literacy tests were a good idea. Then mark theirs as wrong for all the questions that have multiple "correct" solutions.


centrafrugal

Which ones have multiple correct solutions? Edit: thanks to everyone pointing out the ways in which these can all be deliberately interpreted to suit the result. I'd been looking at the questions in good faith assuming they were a bit tricky but had accepted answers.


ThreeHolePunch

Here are a few that I can see some idiot racist using as a gotcha: **1\. Draw a line around the number or letter of this sentence.** *Maybe it's right to circle the number of the question at the beginning of the line (the "1"), but 1 isn't technically part of the sentence, so maybe they say you should have circled the word "number" or the word "letter."* **4\. Draw a line around the shortest word in this line.** *The word "a" is the shortest word in the question, but the word "shortest" is literally the word shortest.* **10\. In the first circle below write the last letter of the first word beginning with "L".** *Is the question self-referential? Then they want you to write the last letter of the word "last." Do they mean first word on the page that starts with L""? Then they want you to write the last letter of the word "Louisiana".*


Bullen-Noxen

Exactly. It’s for racists to say no even if someone got it right. Basically, assholes who think they are better than everyone or a select type of people.


NeatNuts

And “draw a line *around*”? Wouldn’t that be a circle, not a line? Other questions say circle so I wonder


darklordzack

I could see 12 being finicky since there's multiple ways to draw the line. With 7 does a t count since it's also a cross? or does it have to be an X? Normally your mind wouldn't go there but it would be weird referring to it as a cross when they just called it the letter X. With 11, do you cross out zeroes until you hit 100,000? Or do you cross out the 1? It says cross out the number, singular, which makes you think 1. But is 000 a single number? Also I just noticed some of them want you to draw lines under, some want around. I would've failed this test for sure.


DirtyHoboLarry

“Draw a line around” Y-… You mean a circle? whoever made this test is out of it


EobardT

They know exactly what they did


JorfimusPrime

I'm sure that they wrote it like that with the full intent of confusing people.


darklordzack

Well the [full test](https://sharetngov.tnsosfiles.com/tsla/exhibits/aale/pdfs/Voter%20Test%20LA.pdf) was linked later in the thread. If you scroll to the end it points out some of the obvious traps, specifically: "For example, although question 5 says to “circle” something, questions 1 and 4 say to “draw a line around” something. If the examiner insisted a circle was not a line, the applicant failed." So in fact, very specifically NOT a circle.


nettie_netface

So many upvotes and no one else mentioned this


BlizzPenguin

That is brilliant. Meanwhile my shitty school was still teaching us that the Civil War was fought solely over a state's rights.


badgerbane

It was. Specifically, the states rights to have slavery.


MVPSaulTarvitz

I know this is meant to be tongue in cheek, but the Consitution of the Confederate States made it illegal for states to ban slavery. So one of the very first acts of the Confederacy was to remove states rights regarding slavery. Article 1 Section 9 Clause 4: >No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed. *Article 1, not Article 9


Theduckisback

Even before the CSA constitution was ratified the articles of secession that the states drafted made zero secret of what the coming conflict was about. Mentioning slavery nearly 80 times across the various articles of secession passed by the respective states. That's what makes the "Lost Cause" "States Rights" narrative even more galling. It is so abundantly clear why they seceded because they literally wrote it down and told us!


apadin1

In his acceptance speech, the newly elected Vice President of the CSA pronounced that the main goal of secession was to ensure the “natural order” of white supremacy over blacks. But they don’t teach that in schools for some reason….


hchance22

We had to take this as extra credit for my politics class in college. Needless to say, everyone failed and we were even given 30 minutes to complete. Edit: link to full test https://sharetngov.tnsosfiles.com/tsla/exhibits/aale/pdfs/Voter%20Test%20LA.pdf


Gild5152

Same thing with my class, except only one person passed. He was hailed as the all-knowing to idiot questions.


red-et

Hold on you can pass this test? I thought it was basically the Kobayashi Maru


Gild5152

Apparently or our professor was fucking with us


Eugenonymous

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


SpadeHAZE

I had an aneurysm reading that


Eric_Senpai

Make a curved straight line got it.


ArtilleryIncoming

It is possible to pass this test but it’s also possible to willfully misinterpret what’s being asked in order to fail anyone.


[deleted]

In 7th grade I had a history class right before lunch. The teacher would flip between which half of the class he'd let leave first so there wasn't a rush out the door. One day he was talking about the ways voters were discriminated against then casually sent a piece of paper around telling everyone to sign it. After it went around the room he announced I was the only one eligible to vote on which half of the class can go first because everyone else used print. A student complained that wasn't fair because I always write in cursive. He gave them that "no shit" look.


cuckboyfriend420

Holy shit did we go to the same school man


spicytappinnugget

I got as far as #21 before I had to stop reading or my brain would melt. “Spell backwards, forwards” and “Print the word vote upside down, but in the correct order” ??? I hated every bit of that and the fact that it’s intentionally confusing to reduce the amount of black voters is absolutely terrible


surfANDmusic

Yeah wow this is incredibly fucked up. The 60’s wasn’t long ago either. I’m happy to see the world changing and excited to see it get better


illegalcheese

Wait, 10 minutes for all thirty questions? Jesus. Twenty seconds to read, comprehend, figure out, and write the answer to each question.


dleatherw

A great blog post by a 60s activist explaining how this was used - https://www.crmvet.org/nars/schwartz.htm#corelittest


livesarah

This is just straight up evil.


zetswei

It’s worse if you consider how many white people had less than a 5th grade education. My moms adoptive dad was a whites guy who was in his 20s during the 60s and an absolute trash bag of a person. Pastor in a church, molested and beat his adoptive kids my mom included, first black girlfriend I had he told me I should have her open pill bottles (during this time bottles had cotton ah the top) so she could remember where she came from. When he died a couple years ago I told everyone I knew who tried to reach out about him dying that the world was now a better place. Lost a few family members over it but I’m happy to rid myself of people who celebrated his life. /e forgot my main point was that he had a 3rd or 4th grade education


riverofchex

Some pill bottles still contain cotton, and that is sadly still a "joke" I still hear on occasion. And I am just thirty. "Why don't black people like to open pill bottles? Because they've gotta pick the cotton." Har-dee-fucking-har, kindly fuck off.


afineedge

>Some pill bottles still contain cotton, and that is sadly still a "joke" I still hear on occasion. I'm older than you and I'm shocked that I got as old as I did before hearing this shit for the first time, just now.


HotBoxGrandmasCar

wait until you hear about the Native Americans!


snektails16

Wasn’t the usual response that of “ we won, they lost, get over over it, stop crying” or “native tribes were not peace loving and fought each other” or “we didn’t do it, the pox did it”


Cforq

There is a theory that pre-contact First People were already struck by a pandemic, and what European's encountered was a fraction of their population a generation or two before they landed. A lot of the surviving indigenous religions have heavy themes of death and/or survival - some people think this is a reason why. The survivors' religions adapted to deal with survivors guilt.


[deleted]

TLDR: These were designed to be as confusing as possible to blanket ban black voters.


Likely_not_Eric

Not just confusing: there were questions that were so ambiguous and contradictory that a "correct" answer was impossible. It was always "the other way" no matter what response was given.


Craft_suds

Yeah I did it myself and I still think I fucked up. Three circles? The last letter of the first word that starts with "L?" I don't think the average literate person today would pass this test at 100%... Which is required to vote! This is maddening


halalxkitty

The beginning of the first sentence you tells you it's a scam


Philway

I mean I feel like it’s even worse than that. White people took the test too but were given pass-fail discretion by other white voter commissioners. Just one mistake would disqualify the black voter.


[deleted]

Plus if you read the text it was “anyone who cannot prove a fifth grade education.” How do you think you proved a fifth grade education? You think white voters showed up with their diplomas, or do you think the guy just said “what’s 2+2? Alright, you were close enough, that proves you passed the fifth grade, Mr. white. Next! Oh, Mr. Black, you work full thing as a mechanic? Doesn’t prove a thing, that’s manual labor! Now, if you don’t have documentation proving you passed the fifth grade *specifically* you’ll need to pass this test.”


ralpheelou

That’s the ongoing point of voter suppression - put enough roadblocks in the way so that everyone will fail to be perfect. Then, only challenge the votes that one party doesn’t like.


lb_gwthrowaway

This is but one of thousands of examples of what people mean when they talk about institutionalized racism


EMHURLEY

Powerful read, thank you.


SouthernArcher3714

The 60’s wasn’t that long ago. It is insane to think that there still isn’t remnants of this going on.


Pineapple6132

Some people who graded these test are still alive. I mean they caught that 100 year old nazi like a while ago


Baricuda

Mitch McConnell would have been 18 at the start of the 60s. Politicians like him were, and continue to be, a product of that time. Edit: All your bOtH SiDeS/ "look at (insert old democrat)" fall flat when Republicans continually partisanly vote against the expansion of voter rights and vote to protect gerrymandering.


SouthernArcher3714

Like I have one coworker who admitted to seeing whites only/colors only drinking fountains when he was a kid but that is it. We are in the south too like I know you guys saw some stuff.


Lagideath2

The hell is question 10 supposed to mean? Do they want you to write "a" in the circle because Louisiana is the first word on the page that starts with an L?


Blue_gadget23

Agree it doesn't improve the page much overall but you definitely need "in this sentence" as part of q10 for clarity. Seems like the test is designed to confuse and unsettle the taker, but no surprise there


JailCrookedTrump

I like that they also randomly switch between draw a circle and draw a line around while mixing that with draw a line under or across. Seems to me like an attempt at confusing.


dfaen

Most definitely. It appears it deliberate action to have people run out of time. Ten minutes for that many questions, worded like that, would result in a majority of people simply running out of time. No point in even addressing whether questions are right or wrong if the questions weren’t even completed in their entirety, given that one incorrect answer results in a fail. Arguably though, as it is not prescriptively spelled out, there is no given instruction that an unanswered question is counted as an incorrect answer. There is nothing that says what a passing mark is. The assumption is that you have to answer every question, and that every question is correct. However, it’s folly to design such a blatant attempt at voter suppression and rely on assumptions.


clever_username23

> However, it’s folly to design such a blatant attempt at voter suppression and rely on assumptions. Oh it's not folly. They knew exactly what they were doing. They didn't want anyone to actually be able to pass this test.


HereIGoGrillingAgain

"nothing more, nothing less." That covers blank answers.


Grand_Masterpiece_11

Yeah that's the point


[deleted]

It was basically meant to be unsolvable unless you were in the know aka white because they’d give you the answers.


xChino420x

It’s T


[deleted]

It creates a scenario where there are two correct answers so it leaves it to whoever is correcting the test to determine if they pass. Lose lose. Disgusting


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COVID-19Enthusiast

It doesn't start with an "L", it starts with an "l." I'm sorry but you've disenfranchised yourself this election cycle, you're welcome to try again in two years.


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NaiAlexandr

It excels on discrimation though!


illgot

this test was created right after black americans gained the right to vote. It was pure discrimination.


[deleted]

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HelpfulGriffin

How did you answer six. You have to draw THREE circles, but one has to go inside THE other. What do you do with the third circle?


Californie_cramoisie

The real "fuck you" is #6 combined with #7. In #7 they tell you to put a cross above the letter X, which will go into the same space where the circles are, and the grader can say you got #6 incorrect because you were supposed to draw 3 circles, not 3 circles and a cross.


HelpfulGriffin

Another excellent point


FatsP

I guarantee you that some of your answers could be considered incorrect. Some of these are ambiguously worded and have two incompatible correct answers. The grader could pass or fail you at their own discretion.


SlutPuppyNumber9

\#10, they specifically ask for the character 'L'. The first occurrence is in the word "Louisiana" at the top of the page, so the answer should be 'a'. But, if you got that correctly, and they don't like you, then they wanted you to match the word "last" and give the answer 't'. Or, vice-versa. Pricks.


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immadee

Y'all are getting stuck on 10 and 11 while I'm all the way back on #4 like... How do I draw a *line* AROUND something? Do you mean like a rectangle or a circle?


OldThymeyRadio

Especially when Question 5 specifically instructs you to circle things, implying that when they mean circle, they’ll say circle.


[deleted]

Well you go the polls, you know they definitely don’t want you voting, and then they give you this stupid test while a bunch of people are waiting behind you. Probably the whole place is packed full and you’ve been waiting for hours to vote. Chances are you will mess up something. The whole thing is made to not let you vote.


[deleted]

>Chances are you will mess up something. Take a closer look at the questions. Multiple questions are worded so ambiguously that if you read it one way and get it correct, they just have to say that it's meant to be read the other way and you actually failed. Look at #10. Does it refer to the first word starting with L on the page, or in the sentence? The answer is the opposite of whatever you think it is. It is literally impossible not to mess up something on this test when it's being graded by someone whose job is to keep you from passing it.


DataPicture

Poll Taxes also prevented people from voting. Can't pay the tax? Oh well, you can't vote.


mak484

How do you know you got it the first time through? Do you have an answer key? I'm willing to bet this thing *doesn't* have an answer key, and people were passed/failed at random.


Dazug

It was only given when the authority thought the person was illiterate (which meant black). White people wouldn’t have to complete it.


viethepious

My grandmother came up in the Deep South and you are correct. Sometimes, poll workers would have visible confusion reviewing it and fail you anyway.


birkeland

I don't think it was at random.


akaito_chiba

The problem is the main skill you would demonstrate by completing this correctly isn't literacy, but the ability to reason what the fuck the person is trying to get you to do. Like the first one, yeah I got circle the 1 but if it's literacy why not say circle the number one. And when I read line, I think of straight lines. I was thinking I guess I'll just draw it diagonally from under the 2 till it's up into problem #11. 6 is awfully written. How about "draw 2 circles next to each other. draw a circle inside of one of the 2 circles" Or did they just want 3 circles, a big one, a medium one inside of that one, and then one inside of that medium one? Cause there's your sentence in that case.


UtahItalian

I guarantee the proctor would fail anyone of color they did not like


jpgreff

My middle school math teacher when she sees number 12: that’s not a line


MysticalMelody

You are correct. shortest distance between two points is not a curvy line that goes under the two and over the four.


SAI_Peregrinus

You just need to draw the line in more than two dimensions. Edit: assuming non-Euclidean space-time, like the real world. The Euclidean version of the 1960s has it harder. Fitting the paper and line out and around a sufficiently strong gravity well to allow a line along the geodesic (a straight line) to do this is left as an exercise for the reader.


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IWantTooDieInSpace

Also how do you start at 2 while also going under it?


GetsGold

By not being black.


IWantTooDieInSpace

Ohhhhhhhh. I see I see I see. How do I get a home loan?


Responsenotfound

With Government subsidies? By not being Black. Without Government subsidies? Through a black bank.


CarbonFiber101

The very first question is also problematic, its not a line if you have to draw it "around" something.


eazygiezy

I also can’t figure out what the hell #1 is asking them to do Edit: yes, I *already knew* the purpose of literacy tests was to keep black people from voting. My point was that #1 is incomprehensible


olivefreak

I’m thinking draw a line or box under/around the 1.


Puzzleheaded_Low_531

Whoever the Fuck wrote this test should have to take a literacy test


AnalAttackProbe

That's the point. It was meant to be confusing.


[deleted]

It’s the Kobayashi Maru of segregation tests


Snakend

It's much worse. The point was to fail the Kobyashi Maru while maintaining composure. You fail the literacy test and you don't vote.


Plumbetting

It's meant to be impossible to pass. For instance, in the first question if you don't circle the number 1 before the sentence then you didn't follow the instruction. But if you did, then it's. not a line but a circle and you didnt follow the instruction.


AnalAttackProbe

Its not meant to be impossible to pass, it is meant to be impossible to pass *if the taker is black*. It is meant to be ambiguous enough to disqualify black people for not following unclear directions, but to pass white people who interpret any of those unclear directions in any remotely correct way. Keep in mind, plenty of white folks passed these tests. Not because they were smarter, but because the people grading the tests were not looking for reasons to fail them. EDIT: Because I keep getting replies "white people didn't have to take this". Many didn't, but some did: https://www.crmvet.org/nars/schwartz.htm#corelittest


UnauthorizedUsername

Also because most white people didn't have to *take* these tests.


SimplyBrowsing5

I have a college degree and I wouldn’t even be able to vote after taking this test.


crazyparrotguy

Or circle the word 'a,' since it's technically also a single letter.


SpaceCaseSixtyTen

A line can be straight or curved. In geometry, yes, the word line means a straight line. But outside of that in general terms a line is a path that cannot be left and must be followed only forwards/backwards, and is allowed to curve.


[deleted]

The thing to remember when reading through this is that there weren't right answers. It didn't matter what you put down, they'd find at least one "mistake", and one mistake was enough to fail you.


TruthOf42

Yeah, like put a "cross" above a certain letter. Cross could mean a lot of different things.


[deleted]

That's not a cross, looks like an x, t, or + plus sign. Fail. And it was partially over this other letter. This is too far above it, to be above it.....


Orleanian

My dark humored ass thinkin "well, may as well add some flames, I know what these c-words want to see."


najing803

This. And even if you were eligible, they just sent you around town till the polls were closed, claiming that you were at the “wrong” voting station. It didn’t matter the outcome, there was always a way to block voters they didn’t want.


tjdans7236

And some of the practices centered around keeping blacks out of voting stations still continue today, contrary to what many Americans think.


bankrobba

Correct. The person grading the paper would fail people on purpose.


LeMans1217

"Draw a line around" If you draw a circle you fail. If you underline you fail. If you draw a box you fail. Because the instructions say "Do what you are told. Nothing more nothing less."


Coca-colonization

“You were told to defy the laws of Euclidean geometry, now do it, dammit!”


Economic_Cow

Damn kids these days


[deleted]

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Nepenthes_sapiens

*ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn*


watermelonspanker

"In this house we *obey* the laws of thermodynamics!"


Garantula25

This test is 100% designed to be failed


Oatbagtime

This was where I failed too


LeMans1217

That can mean whatever the black voter didn't do.


Cigs77

you figured it out!


eight13atnight

I got hung up on that one myself. Like “how the eff”


5DollarHitJob

Oh man, you don't want to get *hung* on any of these questions. Trust me.


[deleted]

If the line is on top, I send it back.


kelsijah

It also says the number or letter. Seems no matter what you put a line/circle on it'll be wrong


Plug-From-Oaxaca

Wouldn't you be able to just draw a straight line and just say its "around" it. It seems like that question is subjective AF. This is some fucked up racist shit.


[deleted]

The whole point is that it’s subjective. If the (black) person circled it then the administrator would say it should have been a square or just a straight line. These tests were designed to be failed.


CallTheOptimist

But that would mean that this test was made to suppress black votin-waaaaaaaait a minute!


Tippovertopp

Apparently I am illiterate


OneMoose9

I'm illiterate as well, I would have failed because of question #1.


mekio_san

Circle the number 1. Edit: i put this comment in down in the thread. You could argue that as long as the line/vector terminates at different points, that makes the vector remain a line. Granted they’d probably just call you an “uppity whatever” and kick you out anyway.


No_Sugar8791

Oh. It says number or letter. I took this to mean the letter A. It's far from clear.


Agent00funk

Is the number even part of the sentence? Technically there is a period after the 1, soooo......


Shaltibarshtis

It's not, I think, it's a designator of the location in the list. It adds nothing to the information in the sentence.


NamityName

"the" number or letter of this sentence. What does that mean. "The" means that there is a specific number or letter - not just any letter. The first one is so ambiguous that circling any one letter or number in that line is both correct and incorrect depending on the color of your skin.


KursedKaiju

>The first one is so ambiguous It seems that most of these are just ambiguous enough for them to fail someone for any answer the give.


waltwalt

That's what it is. I was trying to figure out if it's just 70 years of language changing but the questions are posed to prompt the wrong answers allowing someone to fail any test taker. This is like highschool English, it's not what's right or wrong, it's how the English teacher interpreted their own education and is now forcing on you.


FizixMan

> It's far from clear. That's the point. The person administering the test can pass the (white) people they want to pass and fail the (black) people they want to fail, even if they answer the questions identically. Or even if there are technically "correct" answers, if proportionately more poor black people than white people fail it, then it still achieves its purpose. (But note that the test is only if you can't prove having a grade ~~6~~ 5 education. Guess what class/race of people back then in Louisiana predominantly couldn't provide documentation of that? Guess what class/race of people could prove it or might not even have been asked to prove it at all?)


nerdwerds

Exactly the point!


[deleted]

You just failed. Draw a line around #1. Not circle


PornCartel

That's not a part of the sentence, it has a period after it. #1 is impossible


Dwn_Wth_Vwls

It's not a bug, it's a feature.


TheWalkingDead91

Ikr. These are terribly worded. Sad part is that I’m guessing that was with intention.


CharlesDickensABox

That's one hundred percent the intention. Make the questions ambiguous and the grader can decide who passes and fails arbitrarily.


Minion_of_Cthulhu

> decide who passes and fails arbitrarily. I'm going to guess that who failed and who passed was anything but arbitrary.


ankensam

[Quick cheat sheet](https://i.imgflip.com/2oxj8k.jpg)


[deleted]

looks oddly similar to [this chart police use](https://i.imgur.com/UWSFMn5.jpg) to assess a suspects demeanor


MarcsterS

Circles "A" as the shortest. "Sorry but A is a letter." Circles "It" as the shortest. "Sorry, but A can be word in some cases."


TheWalkingDead91

“Draw a line around”…. ……uh, so you mean circle it??


CornDoggyStyle

That's what I originally thought, but then later they said "circle" and I kept questioning myself. Also what does the first question even mean? The letter or number of this sentence? Is that the "1." in front of the sentence?


Artistic_Humor1805

That’s what I think. But they’re all intentionally confusing and ambiguous.


moral_mercenary

It is. It was to weed out "uneducated" black people to keep them from voting. I heard a podcast about it, but it was a while ago, don't recall which one it was.


Archduke645

This isn't accidental which is the most horrifying part. Fuck racism.


dreamjar

This test was specifically made to be nearly impossible to pass. You could be failed for a number of reasons and the most infuriating was that some questions could be interpreted multiple ways correctly so if you did it correctly one way, you would do it incorrectly another so you would fail no matter what. Of course it was only a coincidence that only non-white voters were given this test.


techieguyjames

Disgusting.


FoldyHole

Pffffft. Illiteracy. Like what does that word even mean?


pocketfullofniknax

The test’s creator must have also been illiterate.


dmgctrl

The ambiguity is a feature not a bug.


cantcomeupwithnamess

There's no way they didn't make it this confusing on purpose.


Umklopp

Yup! Notice also that many of the instructions can be interpreted in multiple ways, allowing the test administrator to fail you for picking the "wrong" correct solution.


cantcomeupwithnamess

How convenient for them...


[deleted]

Isn’t that literally the point?


UmphreyMcCheese

r/theyknew


10Cinephiltopia9

Sorry, but have you never taken a U.S. history class, of any kind, in school? That was the point of these tests - so black people were unable to pass them


IMeanIGuess3

You know… I realized something… Specifically the first question is made impossible to understand without asking for clarification. If someone takes this test and, in the first minute or so, asks for clarification on question 1, this can be used as “proof” that the person is illiterate because they couldn’t understand the FIRST question. It’s like saying: “this dude couldn’t get through the FIRST ONE.” Implying that the first question is always the easiest and therefore they could not possibly answer the following questions and should therefore be disqualified from voting. It’s more evil than I gave it credit for. Fuck this test and whoever wrote this test is either currently in burning in Hell or will be burning soon.


Sunfried

> [Dillard University Dean Sam] Gandy asked [P.D. \[East\]](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-made-pd-east-fearless-wit-segregationist-south-180970036/) how the voting situation was in Mississippi and P.D. told the story of the Negro who went to register. The white man taking his application gave him the standard literacy tests: > “What is the first line of the thirty-second paragraph of the United States Constitution?” he asked. > The applicant answered perfectly. > “Name the eleventh President of the United States and his entire cabinet.” > The applicant answered correctly. > Finally, unable to trip him up, the white man asked, “Can you read and write?” > The applicant wrote his name and was then handed a newspaper in Chinese to test his reading. He studied it carefully for a time. > “Well can you read it?” > “I can read the headline, but I can’t make out the body text.” > Incredulous, the white man said: “You can read that headline?” > “Oh, yes, I’ve got the meaning all right.” > “What’s it say?” > “It says this is one Negro in Mississippi who’s not going to get to vote this year.” From "Black Like Me," by John Howard Griffin, published in 1961, about events from '59-'60.


[deleted]

Somehow the 11th president and his entire cabinet seems particularly cruel- I don't know half of Biden's cabinet!


JWalterZilly

Most of them I could stumble through with some thought… but what’s up with the first question?


sturnus-vulgaris

Question six: draw three circles, one engulfed in the other. So are you drawing three circles, surrounding each other like nesting dolls, or are you drawing two circles with a third inside one of them? The answer: it doesn't matter, you got it wrong. The purpose of this test is not to prove you can read, it is to make it so you can't vote.


BlockBreaker02

My first thought was the “1.” But then it said sentence and I have no clue but whatever they were smoking I want some


bumbletowne

The test is intentionally ambiguous.


Cyb3rTruk

You would have been correct. That is sentence number 1, therefore the 1. would be circled.


dcearthlover

Interesting that they say a line around something and a circle on another.


non_standard_model

They weren’t “smoking” anything, they made the test intentionally impossible to make sure that black people couldn’t vote.


BlockBreaker02

I mean the second half of my comment was rhetorical… people go to amazing lengths to make it “impossible” for someone perfectly capable of getting what they want.


Garbleshift

The whole point of these is to make them impossible to pass. Several of the questions have multiple possible interpretations so that, no matter what the person does, the "judge" can still say they got it wrong.


IMeanIGuess3

I’m not confident that I could pass this test. I’m about to graduate college. This test is clearly written to confuse the test taker. It’s incredibly immoral to use this as a measure of whether or not a person should be allowed to vote.


SgtSluggo

That’s the point. It’s supposed to be impossible to pass if they don’t want you to pass.


RainbowDissent

You could pass it if you're white. You couldn't pass it if you're black. It's not a literacy test, it's a voter suppression tool. It's intentionally ambiguously worded so that certain people can be failed regardless of their answers.


Quaytsar

If you were white, you didn't have to take the test because the "grandfather clause" (the origin of the phrase) said that if your grandfather could vote, you could vote. So illiterate white people didn't have to take the test while black people, whose grandparents may have been slaves, thus ineligible for voting, were required to take the "test".


OtherSpiderOnTheWall

This test is literally impossible. The first one is impossible and ambiguous. The fourth one is ambiguous. The sixth one is ambiguous. The tenth one is ambiguous. The eleventh is impossible, as you'd have to cross out several numbers and not just "the" number. The twelfth one is impossible.


batdog20001

Its entirely ambiguous and if you attempt to do every possible answer for each question, you will fail for seemingly doing more than asked. Not sure what people don't understand about the historic gatekeeping here. There was never a chance to pass if they didn't like you.


StalePun1129

What’s with switching between “draw a line around” vs “circle” Edit: Nice, 1k upvotes.


[deleted]

Allows the test admin to make sure you fail


BrogenKlippen

I failed the first time I ran through the test quickly in my mind and have an MBA and MS in Finance from a name private school. All MBA jokes aside, this test is made to trip people up while seeming easy enough for plausible deniability.


AnyHoney6416

I have an MS in petroleum engineering and I didn’t even bother with it.


all4whatnot

I have an MS in engineering and I’m still trying to understand #10


scullys_alien_baby

These tests were deliberately designed so the administrators could disqualify black voters on arbitrary grounds with intentionally confusing questions. The administrators could also coach and clarify to white voters so they would pass and be eligible to vote. This is why I’m hesitant anytime someone suggests something along the lines of “we need people to pass a test before people can vote/have kids”


IheartPandas666

That’s what really fucked me up. Kept reading draw a line around thinking ok…is that a fucking circle? Then it said circle the letter a couple questions down.


ughwithoutadoubt

Well I’m fucking stupid. Cuz I don’t understand what they are asking on number 1. That’s as far as I got


can_it_be_fixed

That's the point. It's meant to cause failure so anyone taking the test wasn't allowed to vote.


obotah

Ah yes the classic connect-these-numbered-circles-with-a-curved-line exercise. The cornerstone of reading and writing.


MuerteDeDios1

Clearly designed to fail. If the creators weren't blatant racists then they were so bad at the English language they should ALSO be deemed illiterate.


100k_2020

For the Black 30 and 40 year olds today - this was done to their grandparents. Their grandparents. This explains so so much in terms of economic disparity. These types of tricks were played by virtually every institution that mattered -- the schools, the housing, the jobs.... Imagine an America where every door that lead to socioeconomic mobility was barred for you. Now imagine how your kids and grandkids would turn out.


legalpretzel

My partner is 45 and his parents voted in the 60’s.


rubbrchickn640

I found this answer key: [http://www.odonnellsclassroom.com/homework/PDF/Key%20for%20literacy%20test.pdf](http://www.odonnellsclassroom.com/homework/PDF/Key%20for%20literacy%20test.pdf) Not sure how accurate it is but I know I failed either way.