A literacy test is a test of literacy. People have been tested for the power to read and write for a long time. In much of the 20th century, literacy tests were used to keep African Americans from voting. Voters had to have some kind of knowledge of the United States and the test taker would ask how many states there were and how many senators were in each state. Then the African American would have to sit and take the literacy test while the white man only had to pay $1.50. This was another way the Jim Crow laws segregated or separated whites from blacks. 