ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 11, 1996 TAG: 9602090026
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON
When Dana Hayes teaches the Voting Rights Act of 1965, she knows how to drive home the point.
By giving her students a test.
But it's not just any test. Hayes, a government teacher at Franklin County High School in Rocky Mount, gives them the Alabama Literacy Test. Fortunately for her students, she doesn't count it toward their final grades.
Nor does she require them to pass it in order to vote, which is how it was used in Alabama and other states before the Voting Rights Act made such requirements unconstitutional.
``Obviously, it was aimed at disenfranchising as many people as it could,'' she said.
Here are a few of the test's questions:
On the impeachment of the chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, who tries the case?
If the two houses of Congress cannot agree on adjournment, who sets the time?
Does enumeration affect the income tax levied on citizens in various states?
Who passes laws dealing with piracy?
In all, it was a four-page, 68-question test that had to be completed in 15 minutes with a perfect score in order to pass. For her class, Hayes gives the students about a dozen questions to ponder. She said that is plenty.
``It makes an impression.''
LENGTH: Short : 37 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Dana Hayes DON PETERSEN STAFF colorby CNB