The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow A Century of Segregation
Jim Crow Stories
A National Struggle
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Tools and Activities
For Teachers


Tools and Activities
IntroductionVoting Then & NowRacial RealititesWays of SeeingJim Crow QuizShare Your ViewsExclusive Video

Try to Vote - Registration
Literacy Clause

Literacy tests were used to keep people of color -- and, sometimes, poor whites -- from voting, and they were administered at the discretion of the officials in charge of voter registration. If the official wanted a person to pass, he could ask the easiest question on the test -- for example, "Who is the president of the United States?"
Click to see Literacy Test
The same official might require a black person to answer every single question correctly, in an unrealistic amount of time, in order to pass.
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