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Difficulty: EasyThe Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s

Source: President Lyndon B. Johnson, Address to a Joint Session of Congress, March 15, 1965

"Every device of local government has been used to prevent these citizens from voting. The Negro citizen may go to register only to find that the registration office is open only three days a week, or that the registrar is not there... And if he persists, he may be asked to read the Constitution, or to explain it, or to write it. And if he passes that, he may be asked to answer a series of questions which would stump a constitutional lawyer."

Based on the excerpt, which of the following obstacles to voting was the legislative effort described in the address directly designed to eliminate?

  1. A
    Federal containment guidelines targeting suspected communist subversion in municipal governments.
  2. B
    Debates over the use of armed self-defense versus nonviolence within civil rights organizations.
  3. Literacy tests and discriminatory registration practices used to disenfranchise African Americans.Answer
  4. D
    Economic relief initiatives modeled after the earlier policies of the New Deal.

Answer

Literacy tests and discriminatory registration practices used to disenfranchise African Americans.
The correct answer is correct because President Lyndon B. Johnson's address highlights the discriminatory local registration processes, specifically mentioning literacy tasks like reading and explaining the Constitution. These barriers were designed to disenfranchise African American voters in the South and were banned by the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the historical stimulus for key details regarding voting barriers.
The text details specific local practices such as requiring citizens to 'read the Constitution, or to explain it' or to answer complex questions, which points directly to literacy tests.
Understanding the specific barriers described in the text is necessary to identify the correct legislative target.
2
Connect the stimulus to the legislative context of the mid-1960s.
President Johnson's 1965 speech led directly to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibited literacy tests and other forms of voter disenfranchisement.
Linking the primary source to its historical outcomes helps identify the core purpose of the speech.
3
Match the identified barrier to the correct option.
The option stating 'Literacy tests and discriminatory registration practices' directly represents the practices outlawed by the legislation.
This confirms the correct option based on historical facts and textual evidence.

Key Concept

The legislative achievements and grassroots pressure of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, specifically the fight against disenfranchisement.
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Topics

The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s

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