Amendment No. 176 would prohibit denial of the right to vote in any election of any person because of his inability to speak or understand English. or to read or write in English. if he demonstrates successful completion of the sixth grade of any public or accredited private school in any State. territory. the District of Columbia. or Puerto Rico in which the predominant classroom language was other than English. The effect of this amendment would be to enfranchise a good number of intelligent and literate persons of Puerto Rican origin. The Senate will recall that in 1962 I supported such a proposal as this. indeed I cosponsored with the distinguished minority leader a bill to prohibit the use of literacy tests as a qualification for voting in Federal elections for persons who had completed the sixth grade in a public school or accredited private school in the continental United States or in Puerto Rico. I believe that this provision is beyond a doubt constitutional. In testifying before a congressional committee on the Voting Rights Act of 1965. the Attorney General. too. supported the constitutionality of a measure aimed at this problem.
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literacy tests