Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
The opening night speaker at the Tea Party convention suggested a return to a "literacy test" to protect America from presidents like Obama -- a segregation-era method employed by southern US states to keep blacks from voting.
In his speech Thursday to attendees, former Republican congressman Tom Tancredo invoked the loaded pre-civil rights era buzzword, saying that President Barack Obama was elected because "we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country."
Southern states used literacy tests as part of an effort to deny suffrage to African American voters prior to Johnson-era civil rights laws.
"Prior to passage of the federal Voting Rights Act in 1965, Southern (and some Western) states maintained elaborate voter registration procedures whose primary purpose was to deny the vote to those who were not white," a website for civil rights veterans explains. "In the South, this process was often called the 'literacy test.' In fact, it was much more than a simple test, it was an entire complex system devoted to denying African-Americans (and in some regions, Latinos) the right to vote."
"Because the Freedom Movement was running "Citizenship Schools" to help people learn how to fill out the forms and pass the test, Alabama changed the test 4 times in less than two years (1964-1965)," the site adds. "At the time of the Selma Voting Rights campaign there were actually 100 different tests in use across the state. In theory, each applicant was supposed to be given one at random from a big loose-leaf binder. In real life, some individual tests were easier than others and the registrar made sure that Black applicants got the hardest ones."
Tancredo called Obama a "committed socialist ideologue," and referred to him by his full name, Barack Hussein Obama.
Tea Party opening speaker suggests law that kept blacks be kept from voting be reinstated | Raw Story
The opening night speaker at the Tea Party convention suggested a return to a "literacy test" to protect America from presidents like Obama -- a segregation-era method employed by southern US states to keep blacks from voting.
In his speech Thursday to attendees, former Republican congressman Tom Tancredo invoked the loaded pre-civil rights era buzzword, saying that President Barack Obama was elected because "we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country."
Southern states used literacy tests as part of an effort to deny suffrage to African American voters prior to Johnson-era civil rights laws.
"Prior to passage of the federal Voting Rights Act in 1965, Southern (and some Western) states maintained elaborate voter registration procedures whose primary purpose was to deny the vote to those who were not white," a website for civil rights veterans explains. "In the South, this process was often called the 'literacy test.' In fact, it was much more than a simple test, it was an entire complex system devoted to denying African-Americans (and in some regions, Latinos) the right to vote."
"Because the Freedom Movement was running "Citizenship Schools" to help people learn how to fill out the forms and pass the test, Alabama changed the test 4 times in less than two years (1964-1965)," the site adds. "At the time of the Selma Voting Rights campaign there were actually 100 different tests in use across the state. In theory, each applicant was supposed to be given one at random from a big loose-leaf binder. In real life, some individual tests were easier than others and the registrar made sure that Black applicants got the hardest ones."
Tancredo called Obama a "committed socialist ideologue," and referred to him by his full name, Barack Hussein Obama.
Why doesn't he just come out and say how he really feels.
Tea Party opening speaker suggests law that kept blacks be kept from voting be reinstated | Raw Story
The opening night speaker at the Tea Party convention suggested a return to a "literacy test" to protect America from presidents like Obama -- a segregation-era method employed by southern US states to keep blacks from voting.
In his speech Thursday to attendees, former Republican congressman Tom Tancredo invoked the loaded pre-civil rights era buzzword, saying that President Barack Obama was elected because "we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country."
Southern states used literacy tests as part of an effort to deny suffrage to African American voters prior to Johnson-era civil rights laws.
"Prior to passage of the federal Voting Rights Act in 1965, Southern (and some Western) states maintained elaborate voter registration procedures whose primary purpose was to deny the vote to those who were not white," a website for civil rights veterans explains. "In the South, this process was often called the 'literacy test.' In fact, it was much more than a simple test, it was an entire complex system devoted to denying African-Americans (and in some regions, Latinos) the right to vote."
"Because the Freedom Movement was running "Citizenship Schools" to help people learn how to fill out the forms and pass the test, Alabama changed the test 4 times in less than two years (1964-1965)," the site adds. "At the time of the Selma Voting Rights campaign there were actually 100 different tests in use across the state. In theory, each applicant was supposed to be given one at random from a big loose-leaf binder. In real life, some individual tests were easier than others and the registrar made sure that Black applicants got the hardest ones."
Tancredo called Obama a "committed socialist ideologue," and referred to him by his full name, Barack Hussein Obama.
Why doesn't he just come out and say how he really feels.
Literacy is not the issue, the issue is some people want to disfranchise voters. I figured some people would remember this country's history and what the literacy test has historically been used for. Why some want to go back to that is just sad.
And while you bother with how Obama is speaking at every single moment of his life to make sure his pronunciation is correct, I'll be focusing on the real issues.
So seeing as such was the reason for literacy tests back then is the same reason he would suggest it now.
So are you saying he is a racist?
All things done back then are done for the same reason now?
Are you sure?
Literacy Test, in the context of United States political history, refers to the government practice of testing the literacy of potential citizens at the federal level, and potential voters at the state level. The federal government first employed literacy tests as part of the immigration process in 1917. Southern state legislatures employed literacy tests as part of the voter registration process as early as the late nineteenth century.
As used by the states, the literacy test gained infamy as a means for denying suffrage to African Americans. Adopted by a number of southern states, the literacy test was applied in a patently unfair manner, as it was used to disfranchise many literate southern blacks while allowing many illiterate southern whites to vote. The literacy test, combined with other discriminatory requirements, effectively disfranchised the vast majority of African Americans in the South from the 1890s until the 1960s.
How nobel of you.
You are had and shoulders above the rest of us.
Yoiu want to address the issues.
If I truly believed it would be worth my while I would post osme of your psts as you "addressed the real issues"....
But it is not worth my while. Please...continue to take the high road.
Nice try, what he said was we need people who are litterate in American civics. Anyway, it's not like he suggested that Obama should be serving him coffee or anything like that.
So seeing as such was the reason for literacy tests back then is the same reason he would suggest it now.
So are you saying he is a racist?
All things done back then are done for the same reason now?
Are you sure?
You don't know your history.
Literacy Test, in the context of United States political history, refers to the government practice of testing the literacy of potential citizens at the federal level, and potential voters at the state level. The federal government first employed literacy tests as part of the immigration process in 1917. Southern state legislatures employed literacy tests as part of the voter registration process as early as the late nineteenth century.
As used by the states, the literacy test gained infamy as a means for denying suffrage to African Americans. Adopted by a number of southern states, the literacy test was applied in a patently unfair manner, as it was used to disfranchise many literate southern blacks while allowing many illiterate southern whites to vote. The literacy test, combined with other discriminatory requirements, effectively disfranchised the vast majority of African Americans in the South from the 1890s until the 1960s.
The entire existence of the Literacy Test and it's usage was to disfranchise black voters. And you seem to think it's a good thing.
I don't know whether he is racist, I know at the very least he's ignorant.
I know how to read...you did not have to post it again.
I made the point that just because that was why they had literacy tests back then does not mean that is the reason why we should have them now.
Grade schools now have literacy tests...is it becuase we do not want African Americans to get an education?
Nice try, what he said was we need people who are litterate in American civics. Anyway, it's not like he suggested that Obama should be serving him coffee or anything like that.
Just because he isn't directly racist, doesn't mean he can't be indirectly racist.
I read the article, he says Obama won due to no literacy test. Did you read it?
So seeing as such was the reason for literacy tests back then is the same reason he would suggest it now.
So are you saying he is a racist?
All things done back then are done for the same reason now?
Are you sure?
You don't know your history.
Literacy Test, in the context of United States political history, refers to the government practice of testing the literacy of potential citizens at the federal level, and potential voters at the state level. The federal government first employed literacy tests as part of the immigration process in 1917. Southern state legislatures employed literacy tests as part of the voter registration process as early as the late nineteenth century.
As used by the states, the literacy test gained infamy as a means for denying suffrage to African Americans. Adopted by a number of southern states, the literacy test was applied in a patently unfair manner, as it was used to disfranchise many literate southern blacks while allowing many illiterate southern whites to vote. The literacy test, combined with other discriminatory requirements, effectively disfranchised the vast majority of African Americans in the South from the 1890s until the 1960s.
The entire existence of the Literacy Test and it's usage was to disfranchise black voters. And you seem to think it's a good thing.
I don't know whether he is racist, I know at the very least he's ignorant.
I know how to read...you did not have to post it again.
I made the point that just because that was why they had literacy tests back then does not mean that is the reason why we should have them now.
Grade schools now have literacy tests...is it becuase we do not want African Americans to get an education?
I know how to read...you did not have to post it again.
I made the point that just because that was why they had literacy tests back then does not mean that is the reason why we should have them now.
Grade schools now have literacy tests...is it becuase we do not want African Americans to get an education?
The voting booth is not a place of learning. You are talking apples and oranges.
Did you not see where he said Obama won due to no literacy test?
Referring to the fact that many voted for Obama based strictly on what they heard and not what they knew.
I will admit...it was not the best thing to say....but neither was "negro dialect"....yet I see both as innocent mistakes.
Negro dialect was an innocent mistake to you I am sure...but this thing is a tragedy to you.
