The test has been circulating since at least 1995, when Steven R. Meyers wrote in the Public Law Journal of California (volume 18, No. 3) that his daughter had as high school homework a 30 question former Louisiana literacy test that needed to be completed in 10 minutes. Meyers specifically quotes 5 of his "favorite" questions (all identical to OP questions):
In the space below, write the word "noise" backwards and place a dot over what would be its second letter should it have been written forward.
Spell backwards, forwards.
Draw a figure that is square in shape. Divide it in half by drawing a straight line from its northeast corner to its southwest corner, and then divide it once more by drawing a broken line from the middle of its western side to the middle of its eastern side.
Divide a vertical line in two equal parts by bisecting it with a curved horizontal line that is only straight at its spot bisection of the vertical
Write every other word in this first line and print every third word in the same lein [sic], (original type smaller and first line ended at comma) but capitalize the fifth word that you write.
Also, the 7 May 1980 newspaper article Atiyeh, officials flunk voter 'tests' Oregon Journal, page 19, reports that in a "media show" Black officials including affirmative action officer Kay Toran administered a 29 question test to White officials, who had 10 minutes to complete the test. Three of the questions are quoted in the article, including "spell backwards, forward". All three are identical to OP questions. This event was also reported in the 08 May 1980 newspaper article Officials flunk voters' test on page 7D of Capital Journal which explains that the source of the test was that the son of Oregon Secretary of State Norma Paulus took the test in high school and told her about it. Her understanding was that it was used in Louisiana until 1965.
However, as explained below, the test was not a genuine Louisiana voter test.
As stated by the US Supreme Court in Louisiana v. United States, 380 U.S. 145 (1965):
In response to Guinn v. United States, 238 U. S. 347, which held certain grandfather clauses unconstitutional:
Louisiana, in 1921, adopted a new constitution replacing the repudiated "grandfather clause" with what the complaint calls an "interpretation test," which required that an applicant for registration be able to "give a reasonable interpretation" of any clause in the Louisiana Constitution or the Constitution of the United States. [Footnote 5] From the adoption of the 1921 interpretation test until 1944, the District Court's opinion stated, the percentage of registered voters in Louisiana who were Negroes never exceeded one percent. Prior to 1944, Negro interest in voting in Louisiana had been slight, largely because the State's white primary law kept Negroes from voting in the Democratic Party primary election, the only election that mattered in the political climate of that State. In 1944, however, this Court invalidated the substantially identical white primary law of Texas, [Footnote 6] and, with the explicit statutory bar to their voting in the primary removed, and because of a generally heightened political interest, Negroes in increasing numbers began to register in Louisiana. The white primary system had been so effective in barring Negroes from voting that the "interpretation test," as a disfranching devise, had been ignored over the years. Many registrars continued to ignore it after 1944, and, in the next dozen years, the proportion of registered votes who were Negroes rose from two-tenths of one percent to approximately 15% by March, 1956. This fact, coupled with this Court's 1954 invalidation of laws requiring school segregation, [Footnote 7] prompted the State to try new devices to keep the white citizens in control. The Louisiana Legislature created a committee, which became known as the "Segregation Committee," to seek means of accomplishing this goal. The chairman of this committee also helped to organize a semi-private group called the Association of Citizens Councils, which thereafter acted in close cooperation with the legislative committee to preserve white supremacy. The legislative committee and the Citizens Councils set up programs, which parish voting registrars were required to attend, to instruct the registrars on how to promote white political control. The committee and the Citizens Councils also began a wholesale challenging of Negro names already on the voting rolls, with the result that thousands of Negroes, but virtually no whites, were purged from the rolls of voters. Beginning in the middle 1950's, registrars of at least 21 parishes began to apply the interpretation test. In 1960, the State Constitution was amended to require every applicant thereafter to "be able to understand," as well as "give a reasonable interpretation" of, any section of the State or Federal Constitution "when read to him by the registrar." [Footnote 8] The State Board of Registration in cooperation with the Segregation Committee issued orders that all parish registrars must strictly comply with the new provisions.
The interpretation test, the court found, vested in the voting registrars a virtually uncontrolled discretion as to who should vote and who should not. Under the State's statutes and constitutional provisions, the registrars, without any objective standard to guide them, determine the manner in which the interpretation test is to be given, whether it is to be oral or written, the length and complexity of the sections of the State or Federal Constitution to be understood and interpreted, and what interpretation is to be considered correct. There was ample evidence to support the District Court's finding that registrars in the 21 parishes where the test was found to have been used had exercised their broad powers to deprive otherwise qualified Negro citizens of their right to vote; and that the existence of the test as a hurdle to voter qualification has, in itself, deterred, and will continue to deter, Negroes from attempting to register in Louisiana.
Because of the virtually unlimited discretion vested by the Louisiana laws in the registrars of voters, and because in the 21 parishes where the interpretation test was applied that discretion had been exercised to keep Negroes from voting because of their race, the District Court held the interpretation test invalid on its face and as applied, as a violation of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and of 42 U.S.C. § 1971(a). [Footnote 9] The District Court enjoined future use of the test in the State, and, with respect to the 21 parishes where the invalid interpretation test was found to have been applied, the District Court also enjoined use of a newly enacted "citizenship" test, which did not repeal the interpretation test and the validity of which was not challenged in this suit, unless a reregistration of all voters in those parishes is ordered, so that there would be no voters in those parishes who had not passed the same test.
...
Appellants' chief argument against the decree concerns the effect which should be given the new voter qualification test adopted by the Board of Registration in August, 1962, pursuant to statute [Footnote 15] and subsequent constitutional amendment [Footnote 16] after this suit had been filed. The new test, says the State, is a uniform, objective, standardized "citizenship" test administered to all prospective voters alike. Under it, according to the State, an applicant is
"required to indiscriminately draw one of ten cards. Each card has six multiple choice questions, four of which the applicant must answer correctly."
See also United States v. Katherine Ward 349 F.2d 795 (5th Cir. 1965):
To take the test an applicant draws one of ten cards. Each card has six multiple choice questions, four of which the applicant must answer correctly. This test "requires a comprehension of the theory of the American system of government and a knowledge of specific constitutional provisions."
Overall, 1965 federal court decisions make clear that the Louisiana test in the 1962-1965 period was not that of the OP, but instead a 6 question multiple choice test that required knowledge of government and the constitution. Four of the six multiple choice questions need to be answered correctly.
A genuine set of the ten 6-question multiple choice tests is provided by the Civil Rights Movement Archive
One of the 10 cards:
As historical background of the creation of the OP test, it should be noted that it overlaps a test in the publication Teaching Students To Follow Directions in the Chicago Schools Journal, volume 41, issue 2 (November 1959), pages 72-76, by Melvin Lubershane. (Alternative internet archive link) Particularly, in comparison to OP questions 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 10, 26 and 12, Lubershane's test is:
- Draw a line around the number of this sentence.
- Draw a line under the last word in this sentence.
- Cross out the longest word in this line.
- Draw a line around the shortest word in this sentence.
- ...
- Above the letter X put a small cross.
- Draw a line through the letter below that comes earliest in the alphabet.
Ꮓ V S B D G M K
- In the first circle below write the last letter of the word black.
[5 empty, un-numbered circles are depicted]
- In the third square below write the second letter of the word three.
[5 squares are depicted]
- Draw a line from circle 1 to circle 5 that will pass below circle 3 and above circle 4.
[5 circles with superscript numbers are depicted]
Lubershane presents these questions as actually having been given to students age 10-15, with no mention of voting.
