In May and June of 1959, the Supreme Court heard and decided
Lassiter v. Northampton County Board of Elections. Louise Lassiter, a Black citizen of North Carolina, argued that the law that denied her the right to vote was unconstitutional. That law required that the prospective voter "be able to read and write any section of the Constitution of North Carolina in the English language.” The Court that heard her case was the Warren Court, arguably the most liberal Supreme Court in American history. This Court had ruled 9-0, just a few years before, in
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, in favor of Brown. One might have expected Lassiter to prevail. But the Supreme Court ruled that the law was constitutional and not discriminatory, because it tested everyone regardless of race (laws that
did discriminate, and were thereby unconstitutional, had grandfather clauses that exempted those <whites> who already had a voting history). Justice William O. Douglas, arguably the most liberal justice ever to serve on the Court, wrote the majority opinion. That majority was 9-0. Congress subsequently prohibited literacy tests as part of the
Voting Rights Act of 1965. Such civic literacy laws were
constitutional – but they were rendered
illegal by Congress.
