A Deeper Look into the Insidious Literacy Test

The first part asked about information of the applicant’s identity, which took up a half of the first page and requested information such as the applicant’s residence, military experience, and education. The only question that stood out from the rest asked the applicant “have you been registered to vote in any other state or, in any other county in Alabama? In if in Alabama, at what place did you vote in such county?” (Jones and Williams 2018; n.p.)

Page 1 of the voting application.

The second part continues through the bottom of the second and third page with ten more questions. This part continues to inquire the applicant about his or her citizenship, marital status and history, residence over the past five years, aliases, current employment including the name and address of current employer, voter registration history, more detailed military history, two references, criminal history including traffic violations, and asks “if the applicant had seen a copy of this registration form before today and when” (Jones and Williams 2018; n.p.).

Page 2

The third part of the literacy test is quite ambiguous. The applicant is then given an inserted page and required to attach that page to the rest of the application. This reason is really unknown but it can be assumed that it is to test the applicant’s skill of reading and writing. Right below the space reserved for “part three”, the applicant is given an oath via text. The oath gets applicant to swear that the answers they have given thus far are indeed true and allegiance to the Alabama Constitution and they are not “affiliated with any group or party which advocates the overthrow of the United States or the state of Alabama” (Jones and Williams 2018; n.p.). On the top half of the fourth page, there is a section that requires the signatures of the members of the registrars to signify their rejection or approval of the applicant’s voter registration. Each member has to vote on each potential applicant and only then a voting certificate can be issued to the approved applicant.

Page 3. Notice how the top of the page says "Insert Part three here".

Overall, what seems like a straightforward application was very deceptive. The information on the applications served as data collection on people and “as a form of surveillance (quite literally a way to identify and track Black citizens involved in voting rights and Black citizens seeking to exercise their rights to vote) and intimidation” (Jones and Williams 2018; n.p.). The fact that members of the registrar asked for more detailed and personal information from black applicants than white applicants shows that this whole process was a method of “intentional deception”.

Jones, Natasha N, and Miriam F Williams. “Technologies of Disenfranchisement: Literacy Tests and Black Voters in the US from 1890 to 1965.” Technical Communication Online: Journal for the Society for Technical Communication, Society for Technical Communication, 4 Nov. 2018, www.stc.org/techcomm/2018/11/08/technologies-of-disenfranchisement-literacy-tests-and-black-voters-in-the-us-from-1890-to-1965/.