Mary Hampton of Mound Bayou, Mississippi, tried to register to vote in Bolivar County in 1958. In this affidavit, she argued that “because of race or color I have not been allowed to register” after a clerk claimed she failed her voter test.
Until a 1970 amendment to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed literacy tests nationwide, officials often unfairly administered state-required literacy or civic knowledge tests to keep away from the polls those whom they did not want to vote.
The executive director of the Southern Conference Educational Fund sent Hampton’s affidavit to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. His letter is included, along with an interview form including personal information about Hampton and relating that she tried to register to vote on three occasions.
