Harvard Students Take 1964 Literacy Test Black Voters Had To Pass Before Voting — They All Failed

[MrScorpio]

AUTHOR: VALERIE BEAUMONT NOVEMBER 12, 2014 11:32 AM

Recently, a group of Harvard students were asked to take the 1964 Louisiana Literacy Test — one of the extreme efforts to stop African Americans from voting that eventually led to the passing of the Voting Rights Act. Since racism is no longer a thing in America, according to the Supreme Court, and the Voting Rights Act has been effectively gutted, it might be time for a lesson from the past.

The test required those who took it to correctly answer 30 questions in 10 minutes — something even a group of Harvard students could not do today. The students were recorded struggling with the vaguely-worded questions. Under Louisiana law at the time these students would each require a 100% score on the test to be able to vote.

Carl Miller, a resident tutor at Harvard who administered the test, says that the purpose of the students’ participation was to teach them how unjust the electoral process was toward African Americans.

“Exactly 50 years ago, states in the American South issued this exact test to any voter who could not ‘prove a fifth grade education,'” said Miller. “Unsurprisingly, the only people who ever saw this test were blacks and, to a lesser extent, poor whites trying to vote in the South.”

Miller said he hoped to “see if some of the ‘brightest young minds in the world” could pass a test that was intended to “prove” someone had at least a fifth-grade education, according to the Daily Mail.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/11/12/harvard-students-take-1964-literacy-test-black-voters-had-to-pass-before-voting-they-all-failed/

[Jenoch]

1. The story here is not that

an injustice was done in the South (then mostly controlled by Democrats) by administering this literacy test 50 years ago. The story is how stupid the Harvard students are for not being able to pass the test today. I took the test, it is doable.

[ChazII]

2. Doable yes,

but I could not complete it in 10 minutes. Neat handwriting counts.

[CatWoman]

4. it appears the stupidity is not all on the Harvard students

[arcane1]

3. The 10-minute time limit doesn't help.

That, and the crazy wording of some of the questions, is what leads to failure. Especially since anything less than 100% is considered a failure.

[Xyzse]

5. Where is the answer key?

I am curious about some of the answers actually.
Especially since you have to score 100% to pass.

The ones I am having a bit of trouble with is the ones mentioning draw a line around, rather than saying under or above a word or letter. Especially since they mention "circle" certain words given a specific condition.

[JHB]

22. That's part of the deviousness: there is no key

Some of the ambiguous wording is deliberate: it lets the grader shift which interpretation is being used in order to ensure the answer is graded as "wrong" and thereby deny the person the vote (which was the actual goal of the test anyway).

[Xyzse]

25. That's pretty much why I asked.

The post I was replying to mentioned being able to pass the test.
Which is why I was confused, as some of it is subjective to the individual giving the test and "correcting" it.
Also, they would have had to have had a 100% on it as well.

Which was why I wanted to see an answer key.

[arcane1]

30. Designed also to eat up those ten minutes.

A ticking clock, ambiguous questions, and answers open to interpretation. That's enough to make anyone nervous, especially when lynching was still considered acceptable!

[jwirr]

7. How much education do you have? Many of the people taking that test then probably had little

quality education. Remember the students being walked into the white schools?

[Jenoch]

8. I am judging the Harvard students,

not those forced to take the test years ago.

I am a college graduate with a double major. I admit to being a writer and editor.

[jwirr]

9. I just wondered since I almost made it but my 3 year old great granddaughter came in and I gave up.

Thank you.

[Jenoch]

24. That's a good reason to stop with the test.

My nephew's wife just had my father's fifth great-granddaughter.

[jwirr]

26. Yes, they are precious. Mine then went off to play in a room she shares with her sister, found a

kids scissors and proceeded to cut her hair. She not has a very short bob. They keep us going.

[Jenoch]

28. When I was little

my older brother and I gave each other haircuts. We had buzzcuts for several years after that.

[jwirr]

37. LOL

[Cali_Democrat]

11. I've been reading the responses to this test on other websites

The first reaction conservatives have is how easy the test is and how the Harvard students should pass it.

You post in the gunner forum

Nuff said.

[Rex]

14. I agree defending a voting 'test' designed to make sure you fail

is lame.

[Jenoch]

29. Are you saying I was defending a literacy test in order to vote?

I did not do that. My intent was to point out that a Harvard student shoild be able to pass the test. The wordong is a bit tricky, but it is doable. I understand the intent of the test all those years ago was to make those taking the test to fail and to not be able to vote. That's the way things were done in the south back then. My pointing that out and my support for the Democratic Platform and the U.S. Constitution on RKBA has nothing to do with this thread.

I have over 7,000 posts and have been on DU since 2006.

[JonLP24]

16. He also makes a point to say it was Democrats that came up with it

Yeah the same Democrats that left the Party when Truman ran on a civil rights platform.

Not fooling me.

[RedCappedBandit]

17. Stood out like a sore thumb to me. nt

[Cali_Democrat]

18. Yup.

Another standard right wing talking point:

"Democrats are the real racists because they supported Jim Crow and the South in the Civil War".

Of course all those racist Dems have long fled the party and are now GOPers.

Right wingers are easy to spot.

[JI7]

20. check out his other posts, pretty consistent way of thinking

[JHB]

23. The Dixiecrats who became Dixiepublicans

[Hassin Bin Sober]

21. Bingo

[Rex]

13. Yes the story here is an injustice was done. Giving people 10 minutes

was to stress them out and fail. A voting test lol.

[RedCappedBandit]

15. Oh please. They're not stupid for failing that test.

"Because the test was designed to allow officials to conveniently interpret any and all answers as wrong, not a single student passed."

[MattBaggins]

19. I am going to go ahead and say I disbelieve you

[jwirr]

6. In 10 minutes! I am willing to bet that many of the LA white voters cannot pass this test. I think

it should be given to them in order to vote.

[KamaAina]

10. ROFLMAO!

Yale '85 here.

[bettyellen]

31. LOL, Any excuse to bring up Yale.

[KamaAina]

33. Well, at least I'm a counterweight to George W. Bush '68.

And I made cum laude, which is more than he can say, or even spell.

[bettyellen]

35. yes, cum laude. We know.

[KamaAina]

36. But did you also know that I transferred in from the University of New Haven?

which, oddly enough, is in next-door West Haven. Yale College only takes about 50 transfer students a year, depending on how many students leave, or die.

[Nye Bevan]

12. Most of the questions are (purposefully) badly worded, confusing, and/or ambiguous.

This is the kind of "test" that could be used to prevent anyone from voting, no matter how literate, or smart, they were. Which of course is the purpose of it.

[LeftInTX]

27. We should make the 5 Repuke supremes take this thing.

[bettyellen]

32. I saw a short piece on this @ HLN am news, and they all but left out the entire context...

They were very vague but explained it was designed to fail you- and one of the hosts was like "Why would they do THAT?!" and the other murmured something about ti being racist. It was odd, like they wanted to report on the amusing failure of Harvard kids, but provide NO context.

Thanks for posting it!

[alp227]

34. Sheesh. This whole thing makes the SAT look like a 3rd grade multiplication test. nt