Hispanics and young people are being targeted for voter suppression now since most are democrats.
But, the OP is talking about a 1964 test.
"During Reconstruction Black political power expanded dramatically. More than 1,500 African American men held public office in the South. Sixteen African Americans served in Congress during Reconstruction, and at least 600 served in state legislatures, with hundreds more in local offices.
The Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups mounted violent campaigns against African Americans who voted, ran for office, were economically successful or owned land. White allies were also targets. Because groups like the Klan often drew leaders from “respectable” society, notably law enforcement, it was difficult to prosecute and convict offenders in local and state courts.
Tools of suppression included literacy tests, poll taxes, grandfather clauses, property requirements and other measures to restrict access to the voting booth.
As federal troops left the South, “redeemer” state governments took over, with the goal of recreating the “Old South.”
“Redeemers” were invested in keeping Black voters away from the polls. They wanted to ensure that African Americans would return to being a politically powerless source of labor.
Over the next three decades, the right to vote that African Americans exercised during Reconstruction was lost under white rule in the South. The promise of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments would only be realized in the South in the 1960s, after passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965."
https://www.yourvoteyourvoicemn.org/past/communities/african-americans-past/reconstruction-era-1865-1877
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