Take The Near Impossible Literacy Test Louisiana Used to Suppress the Black Vote (1964)
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In William Faulkner’s 1938 novel The Unvanquished, the implacable Colonel Sartoris takes drastic action to stop the election of a black Republican candidate to office after the Civil War, destroying the ballots of black voters and shooting two Northern carpetbaggers.
  • ArgentRaven@lemmy.worldEnglish
    21·
    1 month ago

    I think the answer key didn’t exist. You could argue syntax on each question, no matter how it was answered. “It says draw A line through both numbers, and you did two lines total.” Or “you drew one long squiggle, that’s not a straight line. You should’ve known to draw two”.

    Three questions per minute, I can imagine why it was nearly impossible to finish, let alone get a technically perfect score.

    And you know this was only administered as a formality to anyone too dark to be “white”.

    • jballsEnglish
      26·
      1 month ago

      Spoiler alert: if you were white, you passed. Otherwise, you failed.

    • fitgseEnglish
      16·
      1 month ago

      That is the whole point. They are ambiguous so the test giver can decide if you passed or not.