Letter writer Lyle Rescott not only wants to restore literacy tests on prospective voters but even suggested civics questions ("Voter registration should come with a test," June 13). So I have one for him, which is whether he is aware of the abusive history of literacy tests in the Jim Crow South which were utilized solely to disenfranchise black people from voting.
If he's totally unaware of this, then he shouldn't be propounding civics tests because he has no idea of their malignant past. If he is aware of it, that is worse but certainly no worse than the Supreme Court which shredded Section 3 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in 2013. My suspicion is that voter identifications and caging lists are still used to disenfranchise black voters.
But how about calling Mr. Rescott's bluff? Could he agree to utilize voter ID requirements and civics literacy tests for only white people? That way he would assure all of his readers that his intention is not to renew the savagery of Deep South under Jim Crow. I can't think of a better way for Mr. Rescott to separate himself from the obviously racial motivation of former Pennsylvania Speaker of the House Mike Turzai who announced on June 25, 2012 that the state's voter ID law would allow Mitt Romney to win Pennsylvania.
Paul R. Schlitz Jr., Baltimore