Some states used what was called a “grandfather clause” to retard our progress after the Fifteenth Amendment passed: Anyone whose grandfather had the right to vote before the Civil War could continue to exercise that right without any impediment. But if a person’s grandfather had not been eligible before the war, then he or she had to take a so-called “literacy test” in order to qualify to register to vote in federal elections. Obviously, none of our grandfathers fell into the first category so we had to be prepared to take that test.
