which legal provision enabled illiterate white people to retain their voting rights in the south after the civil war

Answer 1

The legal provision that enabled illiterate white people to retain their voting rights in the South after the Civil War was known as the "grandfather clause." This clause was implemented as part of the state constitutions and voting laws in various Southern states between 1890 and 1910. It stated that if an individual's father or grandfather had been eligible to vote prior to the abolition of slavery or the enactment of voting restrictions, then that individual would also be eligible to vote, regardless of their own literacy or educational level. This provision effectively exempted illiterate white people from literacy tests or other voting requirements that were implemented to disenfranchise African Americans.