The Ethical Purpose Of Louisiana Literacy Testing

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The alleged purpose of the Louisiana literacy tests were to “verify that the voter had at least a 5th grade education”, but at the end of the day, that was the least of the Registrar of Voters’ concerns. This is evident due to the fact that many blacks were issued the test no matter how much education they had, and because many whites were excused from taking the test no matter how little of an education they possessed. Furthermore, the people grading these tests were all racist whites so no matter how well the blacks may have done on the test, the end result would ultimately be a fail. The literacy tests were simply a fraudulent attempt to suppress the black vote in Louisiana. Whites saw the ability of Blacks being able to vote as a threat