African Americans get the vote....

Once African Americans were given the right to vote, less than 5% of them actually exercised that right because southern states set up literacy tests that had to be passed in order to vote. For the white man, these tests were not a problem, but for a black man or woman these tests were a huge barrier. After years and years of slavery followed by years of inequity in education and schooling, many blacks did not know how to read or write. This helped the white man ensure that although the black man had the right to vote, he would never be able to act on it.....

Because of these situations throughout the south, many Civil Rights' activists were determined to make a change. They set up voting clinics throughout the south were they worked with African Americans, helping them to pass the literacy tests and become officially registered to vote. Their efforts were met with violent repression from state and local lawmen, White Citizens' Council, and Ku Klux Klan resulting in beatings, hundreds of arrests and the murder of several voting activists as seen in this clip from the film "Mississippi Burning".




After watching this clip, discuss in your groups how it is possible to have laws on paper that are not enforced in practice. What examples of hypocrisy do we see in government and policy in the 1960s and still today? How can this double standard be stopped? Or can it be?