# "Take the Impossible “Literacy” Test Louisiana Gave Black Voters in the 1960s"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-impossible-literacy-test-louisiana-gave-black-voters-in-the-1960s/663439>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [July 14, 2013, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-impossible-literacy-test-louisiana-gave-black-voters-in-the-1960s/663439 "2013-07-14T01:10:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-impossible-literacy-test-louisiana-gave-black-voters-in-the-1960s/663439/1 "2013-07-14T01:10:51Z")

</div>

[This is amazing. The level of cynical corruption inherent in this test is stunning.](http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2013/06/28/voting_rights_and_the_supreme_court_the_impossible_literacy_test_louisiana.html?wpisrc=obinsite)

The test is doable if you are reasonably well educated and read quickly, but imagine someone without an elementary school education being given this test. And you have 10 minutes to do this nonsense properly, and missing one disqualifies you.  
Take the Impossible “Literacy” Test Louisiana Gave Black Voters in the 1960s

> [@](#):
>
> Update, 7.3: Read more about my hunt for an original, archival copy of this test here.
> 
> This week’s Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder overturned Section 4(b) of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which mandated federal oversight of changes in voting procedure in jurisdictions that have a history of using a “test or device” to impede enfranchisement. Here is one example of such a test, used in Louisiana in 1964.
> 
> After the end of the Civil War, would-be black voters in the South faced an array of disproportionate barriers to enfranchisement. The literacy test—supposedly applicable to both white and black prospective voters who couldn’t prove a certain level of education but in actuality disproportionately administered to black voters—was a classic example of one of these barriers.
> 
> The website of the Civil Rights Movement Veterans, which collects materials related to civil rights, hosts a few samples of actual literacy tests used in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi during the 1950s and 1960s.
> 
> In many cases, people working within the movement collected these in order to use them in voter education, which is how we ended up with this documentary evidence. Update: This test—a word-processed transcript of an original—was linked to by Jeff Schwartz, who worked with the Congress of Racial Equality in Iberville and Tangipahoa Parishes in the summer of 1964. Schwartz wrote about his encounters with the test in this blog post.
> 
> Most of the tests collected here are a battery of trivia questions related to civic procedure and citizenship. (Two from the Alabama test: “Name the attorney general of the United States” and “Can you be imprisoned, under Alabama law, for a debt?”)
> 
> But this Louisiana “literacy” test, singular among its fellows, has nothing to do with citizenship. Designed to put the applicant through mental contortions, the test’s questions are often confusingly worded. If some of them seem unanswerable, that effect was intentional. The (white) registrar would be the ultimate judge of whether an answer was correct.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-impossible-literacy-test-louisiana-gave-black-voters-in-the-1960s/663439/2 "2013-07-14T01:34:16Z")

</div>

Wow. 10 minutes for that “test”, huh. Good thing we have protections in place so nothing like that ever happens again in the U.S. of A.

Um, we do have protections in place so nothing like that ever happens again in the U.S. of A., right?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-impossible-literacy-test-louisiana-gave-black-voters-in-the-1960s/663439/3 "2013-07-14T02:02:40Z")

</div>

I can’t believe the comments actually defending that test on the Slate page. I mean, I can believe them, in that it’s the internet and if there’s something dumb to be said, it’s going to be in the comments section of a news story, but still.

I’m a reasonably intelligent person, and I wouldn’t bet my life that I could answer that test at 100%. Like what does “Print the word vote upside down, but in the correct order” mean exactly? I assume they mean spell “VOTE” forwards, but flip the letters, but I’m not sure. Or do they mean spell “vote” upside down, so it’s in the correct order when it’s upside down? Fucking stupid question.

Also, questions about drawing shapes involving cardinal directions? (LIke #21). I’m guessing the assumption is that north is the top of the page, but that’s not given to assume. You can answer that question literally, taking into account which direction you’re facing and where northeast actually is, and get it wrong because of this fact.

“Draw five circles that one common inter-locking point.” Really? The literacy test isn’t even passing English grammar!

Is this for real? This is very lightly pinging my BS meter, but I’m holding out judgment until I hear more about this.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-impossible-literacy-test-louisiana-gave-black-voters-in-the-1960s/663439/4 "2013-07-14T02:08:01Z")

</div>

> [@pulykamell](#):
>
> Is this for real? This is very lightly pinging my BS meter, but I’m holding out judgment until I hear more about this.

[Here](http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2013/07/03/louisiana_literacy_test_update_the_hunt_for_the_original_document.html)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-impossible-literacy-test-louisiana-gave-black-voters-in-the-1960s/663439/5 "2013-07-14T02:17:13Z")

</div>

> [@pulykamell](#):
>
> I’m a reasonably intelligent person, and I wouldn’t bet my life that I could answer that test at 100%. Like what does “Print the word vote upside down, but in the correct order” mean exactly? I assume they mean spell “VOTE” forwards, but flip the letters, but I’m not sure. Or do they mean spell “vote” upside down, so it’s in the correct order when it’s upside down? Fucking stupid question.

That’s the beauty(erk) of the test. No matter how you answer, the examiner can claim the correct answer was something else.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-impossible-literacy-test-louisiana-gave-black-voters-in-the-1960s/663439/6 "2013-07-14T02:22:09Z")

</div>

One of the questions reads, “In the space below draw three circles, one inside (engulfed by) the other.” So what about the third circle?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-impossible-literacy-test-louisiana-gave-black-voters-in-the-1960s/663439/7 "2013-07-14T03:15:22Z")

</div>

> [@astro](#):
>
> [Here](http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2013/07/03/louisiana_literacy_test_update_the_hunt_for_the_original_document.html)

Well, question 11, is different in the two versions. In the typewritten version, it’s actually fair because only one 0 needs to be crossed out.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-impossible-literacy-test-louisiana-gave-black-voters-in-the-1960s/663439/8 "2013-07-14T03:19:28Z")

</div>

This is a mixture of sad and funny. Like something you’d expect a 5 year old to make his sister do if she wanted into his treehouse.

I like 27.

1. Write right from the left to the right as you see it spelled here

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-impossible-literacy-test-louisiana-gave-black-voters-in-the-1960s/663439/9 "2013-07-14T03:20:21Z")

</div>

Yes, terrible test.

1. What does that even mean? I think they mean to circle “1.”. Or maybe circling the period would get me marked wrong? Also, so I don’t have to keep saying it. “Draw a line around” is a bit… odd. Why not just say “encircle”?

2. Uh… I think they mean to circle the “a” in “alphabet”? Probably?

3. As mentioned, do they mean 3 concentric circles? What about the third circle? Also, I just know these bastards are going to say “I’m so sorry, this isn’t a circle, it’s an **ellipse** ” (and if it appears to be circular “if you look closely, you can see some wavering, this is merely a **closed curve** , not a circle”).

4. Define “cross”, do any two crossing lines count? Some people use cross to mean “x”, some use it to mean a horizontal and a vertical line. If this were a modern standardized state schooling test I’d say I was being overly nitpicky, but I’m only being nitpicky because I know the graders here have an agenda and would actually use shit like this against people.

5. Okay, I want to point out something here. Earlier in the test they were **very** sure to say “in this line” on all the questions. Now look at 10, it simply says “the first word beginning with ‘L’.” Now does that mean in that line (making the answer the ‘t’ from ‘last’), or should I go back to the top of the test and realize that the last letter of Louisiana is “a”?

6. “Cross out the number necessary”. Huh? This requires crossing out number **s**. Plural.

7. I have a strange feeling that whether that’s \> and \< or \>= and \<= is going to change depending on the grader’s mood.

8. By “backwards” do they mean that (for instance) the open part of the “e” should be facing backwards as well as reverse letter ordering, or merely that the letter ordering is reversed? Meaning: do they want to characters written facing opposite their normal direction too?

9. “Left corner” is ambigous. Grader could interpret it to mean “the exact point that’s the left corner” or “the general region that defines the left corner of the triangle” The former is almost impossible.

10. I might be off my rocker, but I’m pretty sure that this could be interpreted as either writing “backwards” or writing “sdrawrof”.

11. Already mentioned earlier in the thread.

12. As mentioned “north” (etc) is terrible to use here, unless it was notational convention at the time.

13. This **could** mean a palindrome, or it could mean a palindrome that looks the same when the **characters** are reversed too (which is font dependent, but think MOM vs racecar, MOM in allcaps looks the same even if you write the letters facing backwards too, racecar will look weird).

14. Same issue as one of the above questions. Fourth word in the line, or “Louisiana”?

15. Uh… “right”? I seriously can’t tell if this is a trick question or I’m just paranoid.

16. That’s just a “fuck you” question, plain and simple. It has some ambiguities, but mostly if the grader decides to be just the tiniest bit strict it’s nigh impossible without tools, unless you’re a geometry teacher that moonlights as an artist I guess.

17. I’m not clear on the write/print distinction. I guess they expect “write” to be cursive? Also, is the first word to write “Write” or “every”? Am I supposed to do these as two separate tasks one after another, or interleave them? Is “capitalize the fifth word you write” intentionally phrased “write” to match the “Writing” you do with every other word, or does “printing” count for purposes of capitalization?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Blackberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blackberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackberry)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-impossible-literacy-test-louisiana-gave-black-voters-in-the-1960s/663439/10 "2013-07-14T03:33:32Z")

</div>

> [@Jragon](#):
>
> 1. “Cross out the number necessary”. Huh? This requires crossing out number **s**. Plural.

Couldn’t you just cross out the 1?

I wonder what percentage of takers passed this bullshit test.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-impossible-literacy-test-louisiana-gave-black-voters-in-the-1960s/663439/11 "2013-07-14T03:52:27Z")

</div>

> [@Jragon](#):
>
> 1. This **could** mean a palindrome, or it could mean a palindrome that looks the same when the **characters** are reversed too (which is font dependent, but think MOM vs racecar, MOM in allcaps looks the same even if you write the letters facing backwards too, racecar will look weird).

Personally, I was going to go with “I” for that question to avoid as many of those problems as possible. I mean, the way this test is written, if genuine, is it’s sculpted in such a way that pretty much everyone would have one “wrong” answer, depending on how the test scorer is interpreting the question. This is what especially pisses me off about the commentators on that page who think this is a straightforward and simple test. (But, personally, I’m not 100% convinced this is legit.)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-impossible-literacy-test-louisiana-gave-black-voters-in-the-1960s/663439/12 "2013-07-14T04:06:41Z")

</div>

OK, looking through the comments of the follow-up Slate article, I find this unconfirmed [answer key](http://www.odonnellsclassroom.com/homework/PDF/Key%20for%20literacy%20test.pdf). They’re not numbered the same (there’s fewer questions on this one), but the questions are similar if not exactly the same to some of the ones in the OP. I do not understand the answer to #18, which is #29 in the OP. “Capitalize the fifth word that you write” would seem to me to indicate that “and” in the top line should be capitalized (this is assuming that “write” means cursive and “print” means non-cursive, which is bullshit, too, but let’s just go with that definition). But apparently “The” is the correct one to capitalize? The fifth word that is printed?

WTF?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chief\_Pedant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@Chief\_Pedant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Pedant)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-impossible-literacy-test-louisiana-gave-black-voters-in-the-1960s/663439/13 "2013-07-14T04:27:53Z")

</div>

The test is obviously designed by an undereducated idiot whose sole purpose is to administer a test that prevents an individual from passing it.

What I want to know, is: Is it real? How many people were prevented from voting because of this?

If it’s even one, that’s still a tragedy. But if it’s thousands, then the test deserves all the notoriety it is being given.

If it’s a hoax, or if it is some sort of one-off from one racist guy in one precinct, promoting his personal racist agenda for a handful of voters, we should be careful promoting it as widespread or archetypical. The lie about George Washington and the cherry tree did not help me learn how to be honest, however well-intentioned it was.

The most powerful weapon in the anti-racist aresenal is absolute truth, dispassionately presented.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-impossible-literacy-test-louisiana-gave-black-voters-in-the-1960s/663439/14 "2013-07-14T04:34:21Z")

</div>

> [@Jragon](#):
>
> 1. Okay, I want to point out something here. Earlier in the test they were **very** sure to say “in this line” on all the questions. Now look at 10, it simply says “the first word beginning with ‘L’.” Now does that mean in that line (making the answer the ‘t’ from ‘last’), or should I go back to the top of the test and realize that the last letter of Louisiana is “a”?

When they said “first word”, they did not say where the “first word” would be – so my first guess as to what they meant was, first word in the English language in dictionary order, which would be “la” (it’s a Scrabble word), and so the answer would be “a”.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-impossible-literacy-test-louisiana-gave-black-voters-in-the-1960s/663439/15 "2013-07-14T05:20:28Z")

</div>

> [@runner pat](#):
>
> That’s the beauty(erk) of the test. No matter how you answer, the examiner can claim the correct answer was something else.

Conversely it’s vague enough that an examiner could also _pass_ just about any answer given. Something which only happened on the rare occasion a white person had to take the test.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-impossible-literacy-test-louisiana-gave-black-voters-in-the-1960s/663439/16 "2013-07-14T05:23:20Z")

</div>

> [@Giles](#):
>
> When they said “first word”, they did not say where the “first word” would be – so my first guess as to what they meant was, first word in the English language in dictionary order, which would be “la” (it’s a Scrabble word), and so the answer would be “a”.

I say it was the first “l” word the grader saw as a child.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-impossible-literacy-test-louisiana-gave-black-voters-in-the-1960s/663439/17 "2013-07-14T06:20:52Z")

</div>

> [@Blackberry](#):
>
> Couldn’t you just cross out the 1?
> 
> I wonder what percentage of takers passed this bullshit test.

I’m sure that nobody ever passed it. It probably was only given to people that they didn’t want to register, that is, blacks. All others were waived the test for some reason or other, e.g. they “could prove a fifth grade education”.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-impossible-literacy-test-louisiana-gave-black-voters-in-the-1960s/663439/18 "2013-07-14T07:04:23Z")

</div>

There’s a good chance that people taking the test couldn’t finish all the questions in the 10 minutes allowed, so it wouldn’t matter how they answered. Even for a passably educated voter (meaning myself, I think), it takes too long just trying to parse those incomprehensible questions, let alone trying to guess what answer they are “looking” for.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-impossible-literacy-test-louisiana-gave-black-voters-in-the-1960s/663439/19 "2013-07-14T07:54:29Z")

</div>

I was almost expecting it to be one of those “read ALL the instructions” tricks where the last one says something like “ignore all the previous instructions and simply write the word ‘finished’”.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-impossible-literacy-test-louisiana-gave-black-voters-in-the-1960s/663439/20 "2013-07-14T09:43:30Z")

</div>

Fairly straightforward I think.I had always heard tests had questions like “how many bubbles in a bar of soap” and “what is the colour of the first lady’s sister-in-laws favourite hat”. This seems almost reasonable by comparison.

[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-the-impossible-literacy-test-louisiana-gave-black-voters-in-the-1960s/663439.md?page=2)