The bill condemns five States as a whole and parts of two other States without notice. without an opportunity to be heard. without evidence. and without a trial. By an artificial and deceptive triggering process. it declares that 5 States and substantial portions of 2 other States are guilty of violating the 15th amendment. Thirtyfour counties of the -State which I have the honor. in part. to represent are condemned by this artificial and deceptive formula of violating the 15th amendment upon the pretext that the election officials in them use literacy tests to deny citizens the right to vote on the basis of their race or color. That is the condemnation made by the triggering process of the bill. The condemnation is made despite the fact that records assembled by U.S. Civil Rights Commission show that during recent years 997 of every 1.000 persons of both races who took the literacy test in North Carolina were judged literate and were registered. - The administration. through its representative. the Attorney General. demands the passage of the bill. The Attorney General came before the Senate Judiciary Committee and admitted that the Department of Justice had no evidence that any of the 34 counties of North Carolina are engaged in violating the 15th amendment. A tragic day has been reached in the history of the Nation when its chief law officer comes before a committee of Congress and demands that 34 counties of my State. which he admits to be innocent. be adjudged guilty of a violation of the Constitution.
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literacy test literacy tests