Literacy tests were used to disenfranchise which groups?

• A. Poor whites and African-Americans
• B. Immigrants only
• C. Landowners
• D. Public employees

Answer: (A)

Literacy tests were used as a tool to suppress voting rights during the Jim Crow era, and the pattern targeted African Americans in the South after Reconstruction. The tests were often administered in biased, opaque ways that made it easy to bar Black citizens from voting even if they could read or understood the material. While some poor whites could be affected too, the design and enforcement focused on disenfranchising Black voters, rather than immigrants, landowners, or public employees.