African Americans have had a long, hard road to be treated as citizens of the United States just like a white person. First, they finally got their rights to not be slaves. Then, we read about their struggle in getting their rights in public places (the Rosa Parks bus incident). Now, in this speech, we read about the struggle African Americans faced for their right to vote.
In the article, it states, "the Constitutions says that no person shall be kept from voting because of his race or his color". This clearly said that African Americans had the same right as white people to vote; however, white people still weren't used to the idea. Because white people weren't used to the idea yet, they would try anything to stop African Americans from voting.
The speech says that we would use a test to try and keep the African Americans from voting, "And if he manages to fill out an application, he is given a test. The registrar is the sole judge of whether he passes this test. He may be asked to recite the entire Constitution, or explain the most complex provisions of state law". I don't know about you, but if I were asked to recite the entire Constitution of the United States of America, I would fail too. I think any white person back then and today would probably fail that test as well. There are too many articles and sections within the Constitution to remember it word for word. If the African American couldn't recite the entire Constitution, the white person wouldn't let them vote because they weren't a "true" citizen. This was just an easy, unfair, and illegal way to stop the African Americans from voting.
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