[BLANK-1] were аmоng the numerоus mechаnisms utilized in аn attempt tо disenfranchise African Americans in the south during the Jim Crow Era. Local voting officials, who were themselves part of the local party machine, were responsible for judging whether voters were able to read and understand a section of the Constitution. In order to protect illiterate whites from exclusion, the so-called “understanding clause” allowed a voter to qualify if they could adequately explain the meaning of a section that was read to them. In practice these rules were systematically abused to the point where local election officials effectively wielded the power to permit and deny suffrage at will (in most cases, those denied the right to vote by election officials were Black).