"[the registrar] brought a big old book out there, and he gave me the sixteenth section of the constitution of mississippi,
. i could copy it like it was in the book, but after i got through copying it, he told me to give a reasonable interpretation
and tell the meaning of the section i had copied. well, i flunked out."
- mississippi freedmen, 1880
--2. why were southern legislatures able to pass these laws?