literacy test

noun

an examination to determine whether a person meets the literacy requirements for voting, serving in the armed forces, etc.; a test of one's ability to read and write.

Origin of literacy test

First recorded in 1865–70

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Hamer persisted and passed her literacy test on the third attempt.
Some call voting restrictions upheld by Supreme Court ‘Jim Crow 2.0.’ Here’s the ugly history behind that phrase. | Gillian Brockell | July 2, 2021 | Washington Post
If that was true you couldn’t strike down a literacy test, or a law that was racially discriminatory.
The Trailer: Is election reform headed for passage, courts, or nowhere? | David Weigel | March 4, 2021 | Washington Post
It would seem that the literacy test has been applied to ghosts in recent fiction.
The Supernatural in Modern English Fiction | Dorothy Scarborough
But for this, she would have grown up too ignorant to pass the very simplest literacy test.
Superwomen | Albert Payson Terhune
That the literacy test be not applied to the wives of immigrants.
The Immigrant Tide, Its Ebb and Flow | Edward A. Steiner

Many scientific endeavors of our time would not have started if potential success were to be put to a literacy test.
The Civilization of Illiteracy | Mihai Nadin
The literacy test was inserted by the House but was rejected by the Senate.
Our Foreigners | Samuel P. Orth

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