Speech #890047556

It also affects poor white citizens. and I am sure ir many instances deprives them of their right to vote. Buteven among the poor there are those who are poor. and those who are really poor. and I feel it can be clearly shown that in this country the Negro is without parallel as a class of people whose economic status has suffered tremendously as a result of past and current deprivations. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 provides for Federal examiners in affected areas where necessary and .where literacy tests and devices have been used. We know that once these tests have been eliminated the examiner may not give these literacy tests himself nor any portion of such test. for it is assumed that these literacy tests no matter how fairly administered will fall discriminatorily upon the Negro. The cause for this is traced to the legal separation of the races in education until recent times and there is a general recognition that current educational opportunities still places the Negro in a disadvantaged position. A look at the statistics of family and individual income by white and nonwhite groups shows us in every instance that the Negro is worse off than the white regardless of education. regardless of job. regardless of skill. and in effect regardless of anything that the Negro may try to do.