Speech #870193038

Mr. President. I voted against tabling the MansfieldDirksen amendment today because I Lelieve that Congress should take some action to solve the problem which has been presented by the discriminatory practices resulting from the literacy test provisions which exist in some of the States. I am much concerned. however. about the MansfieldDirksen amendment. The reason is that I believe this amendment has been popularized as being a literacy test amendment. and that is not quite the case. The amendment goes beyond literacy. I have expressed myself on a number of occasions as being in favor of some kind of a uniform interpretation of the word "literacy." I can understand why the word "literacy" should have a uniform application as among the several States. I think this uniformity is needed in order to prevent discrimination. because of the literally hundreds of cases which have been brought to the attention of the Congress involving abuses of the literacy test. Mr. President. when I am asked to support a literacy test amendment I believe I should be given a literacy test amendment to support and nothing else. That is not what we have been given. The MansfieldDirksen amendment. subparagraph (d). page 2. line 5. reads as follows: Congress further finds that education in the United States Is such that persons who have completed six primary grades in a public school or accredited private school cannot reasonably be denied the franchise on grounds of illiteracySo far. so good. but the next two lines read as follows: or lack of sufficient education or intelligence to exercise the prerogatives of citizenship.