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OTD in 1857 #Massachusetts voters decided to make future voters prove their literacy by reading a randomly drawn sample of the state Constitution and signing their name. It was the second state to do so — after Connecticut. (Clipping: New England Farmer) (1/4) 
The point was not education. It was to keep working Irish, many illiterate, from voting. The idea was sprung by Know-Nothings who’d swept to power three years earlier. (Clipping: Boston Evening Transcript) (2/4)
Their tactics inspired others. The literacy test spread through the Northeast and Midwest. Then, 33 years later, Mississippi erected it with other hurdles meant to keep Blacks from voting despite the promises of the 15th Amendment. Other Southern states followed. (3/4)
The literacy test lingered, legally, until the #VotingRightsAct was signed on Aug. 6, 1965. More on the early days of this infamous test: plainfieldmahistory.org/vote/ (4/4)
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