Literacy Test

The Literacy Test was a Jim Crow Law instituted in the southern states after the Reconstruction. It required all voters to prove their literacy before voting, but the grandfather clause exempted people whose ancestors had been able to vote in 1867 from the literacy test. In this way, the literacy test prevented many African Americans from voting.

See Also

• Jim Crow Laws
• Civil Rights
• Civil Rights Movement
• Poll tax
• Grandfather Clause