Speech #910172647

It would provide. nationwide. statutory authority for the Attorney General to start voting rights lawsuits in Federal courts to prevent discriminatory practices and to suspend discriminatory voting laws in all 50 States. Fifth. It would launch a nationwide study of the use of literacy tests or devices and other corrupt practices which may abridge voting rights in all 50 States. A national voting advisory commission would be created to report its findings prior to the expiration of the nationwide literacy test suspension in Mr. President. I am highly gratified. as most people are. that 800.000 black Americans have been registered to vote in the six States that have been covered under the formula of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The 1965 act was directed at the discrimination against Negroes in Southern States resulting primarily from the use of literacy tests. However. it is becoming a wellknown fact that literacy tests have the effect of discriminating against all educationally disadvantaged citizens of all races and colors and residents in many of the 50 States. As Attorney General John Mitchell said during the hearings of the Constitutional Rights Subcommittee last July: The widespread and increasing reliance on television and radio brings candidates and issues into the homes of almost all Americans. Under certain conditions. an understanding of the English language. and no more. is our national requirement for American citizenship. Perhaps. more importantly. the rights of citizenship. in this day and age. should be freely offered to those for whom the danger of alienation from society is most severebecause they have been discriminated against in the past. because they are poor. and because they are undereducated. As responsible citizenship does not necessarily imply literacy. so responsible voting does not necessarily imply an education. Thus. it would appear that the literacy test is. at best. an artificial and unnecessary restriction on the right to vote. A study by the U.S. Civil Rights Commission shows that. in general. States of the North and the West which have literacy tests have lower registration and turnout rates than those States without literacy tests. It can be little doubted that literacy tests in all States that have them inhibit voting by minority group persons and educationally disadvantaged persons. A nationwide ban on literacy tests as proposed in H.R. 4249 would add numbers of blacks and whites. Mexican Americans. Puerto Ricans. and American Indians. as well as others. to the voting rolls.