Literacy test

This article is about citizenship and voting eligibility tests in the United States. For the standardized test in Ontario, see Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test.

Editorial cartoon from the January 18, 1879, issue of Harper's Weekly criticizing the use of literacy tests. It shows "Mr. Solid South" writing on wall, "Eddikashun qualifukashun. The Blak man orter be eddikated afore he kin vote with us Wites, signed Mr. Solid South."

A literacy test assesses a person's literacy skills: their ability to read and write. Literacy tests have been administered by various governments, particularly to immigrants.

Between the 1850s and 1960s, literacy tests were used as an effective tool for disenfranchising African Americans in the Southern United States. Literacy tests were typically administered by white clerks who could pass or fail a person arbitrarily. Identical test answers were often marked correct for white applicants and incorrect for Black applicants. Illiterate whites were often permitted to vote without taking these literacy tests because of racial grandfather clauses written into legislation.

Other countries, notably Australia, as part of a so-called "White Australia policy", and South Africa adopted literacy tests either to exclude certain racial groups from voting or to prevent them from immigrating to the country.