The History Behind
I remember the magazine article like it was last week. Newsweek. I found it in the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, something that might not exist anymore. At least in the minds of those assigned research papers. It was in Mr. Elcott's U.S. History class that I chose from among the list of approved topics. The Spring of '64 featured all manner of Cold War issues, post Kennedy assassination speculation, and a new "brushfire war" taking hold in an unfamiliar corner of Southeast Asia called Vietnam. But there was one line in that article about voting rights for black people in the South that took my breath away. "How many bubbles are there in a bar of soap?" That was the question framed in this unforgettable sentence. It appeared as part of a discussion on literacy tests, poll taxes and grandfather clauses used to deny black people the right to vote. A question on a test that couldn't be answered correctly. A tax for a Constitutional