On Friday we took at look at a literacy test that was given to voters in Alabama in 1965. Each week in my class we do a formative assessment called the Weekly Ten, but this week instead of our normal Weekly Ten I surprised the students by giving them a literacy test to see exactly how smart they were.

The reaction of my students was pretty typical, they were surprised to find out that people were subjected to a test about civics in order to assess their literacy. They were also surprised to find out that the majority of white people were excused from taking this because of the fact that they met the requirements for the grandfather clause that many states used at this time. The grandfather clause in Alabama stated that if you were a decedent of a US citizen prior to the year 1866 they you were exempt from taking the test…African Americans were not allowed to be citizens until the 14th amendment was introduced in 1868.

Mr. McClung