Following the Reconstruction era, southern states and groups like the Ku Klux Klan enforced segregation and intimidated black citizens, keeping them through various ploys from registering to vote, or if registered, from casting votes that counted in elections.

Registration obstructions were comprised not just of literacy tests, although these were the most common. Registration offices kept odd hours, and required different documentation for black registrants than for white ones, who could cite a "grandfather clause" providing for automatic registration if an ancestor had been enrolled. Poll taxes punished poorer citizens who couldn't afford them.

"White primaries" permitted only white citizens to cast ballots, and in states where the Democratic Party was the only one whose nominees ever won, the primary was in fact the election. Precincts were gerrymandered so that white voters would always outnumber African American ones; even if they did get to cast ballots, sometimes African American voters received "tissue paper ballots," made of thinner paper and discarded before the votes were counted.

MATERIALS

*DOC* - Alabama Literacy Test Handout

*DOC* - Alabama Literacy Test answers

*DOC* - Voting Act excerpts

*DOC* - President Johnson's speech 
 

1. Hand out the "Constitution Test" and tell students that they will take it because today is Constitution Day, by federal law.

2. When students ask whether the test will count, tell them that you haven't decided yet.

3. After most students have completed the test, ask them to trade papers and grade the tests.

4. Read the answers aloud. Do not respond if students say "That's not fair" to an answer like that of #20.

5. After students have marked the number wrong for their neighbors and returned the tests, tell the class: "You just took a 1965 Alabama Literacy Test to determine whether you were qualified to vote. Would you have passed it?"

6. Discussion Questions
You were pretty upset when you thought it might harm your grade. How might you feel if it robbed you of your right to vote?

In 1965, you had to be 21 to vote. How old are African American Alabamans today who were 21 in 1965, and can remember these literacy tests?

What are the requirements today for registration and voting in your state in the Presidential election?

How did the lesson help you to understand the significance of this current election?

7. Distribute the handout, "The End of Literacy Tests: The Voting Rights Act of 1965," for reading aloud or reflectively. Does it affect their opinion of President Lyndon Johnson?

Students may wish to research other voter obstructions: gerrymandering, tissue paper ballots, grandfather clauses, white primaries.

National Council for the Social Studies
"Expectations of Excellence"

1. 1. Time, Continuity, and Change
      c. identify and describe significant

VI. Civic Ideals and Practices
a. Explain the origins and interpret the continuing influence of key ideals of the democratic republican form of government, such as individual human dignity, liberty, justice, equality, and the rule of law.