Speech #940066388

However. despite impressive gains in the registration of blacks in covered States. the progress must still be considered limited and uneven at best. There are still States. and pockets within States. where significant discrepancies exist between the percentage of eligible blacks registered to vote and the percentage of eligible whites so registered. Although we no longer have literacy tests. poll taxes. and other blatant efforts to exclude whole classes of people from voting. there still exist more subtle. but still effective. means by which minorities are excluded. or dissuaded from registering to vote. Evidence still can be found in substantial numbers of areas of outright exclusion and intimidation at the polls. of restrictive times and places for registration. of a lack of assistance to illiterate voters. of discriminatory purging of registration rolls. of a lack of bilingual materials at the polls for nonEnglishspeaking persons. of failure to find voters names on precinct lists. and of many other devices which effectively exclude or greatly dissuade minority citizens from registering to vote. It is often said that you cannot legislate changes in attitudes.