College Composition and Communication Feb 2006

Literacy, Voting Rights, and the Citizenship Schools in the South, 1957-70

Susan Kates

Abstract

This essay examines the history of a massive literacy campaign called the Citizenship School Program that began as a response to the racist literacy tests that disenfranchised countless African American voters throughout the Southern United States between 1945 and 1965. The Citizenship Schools prepared thousands of African Americans to pass the literacy test by using materials that critiqued white supremacism and emphasized the twentieth-century struggle for civil rights.

Journal
College Composition and Communication
Published
2006-02-01
DOI
10.58680/ccc20065050
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
literacy studies race and writing editorial matter
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (3)

  1. Proszak (2021)
    Products of US Performance: A Material Rhetorical Education at North Bennet Str…
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  2. Adkins (2017)
    Book Review-Identity and Power in Narratives of Displacement, by Katrina M. Powell
    Literacy in Composition Studies
  3. Cridland-Hughes (2011)
    African American Community Literacy and Urban Debate
    Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric

References (0)

No references on file for this article.

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