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The Immigration Act of 1917 (also known as the Literacy Act or the Burnett Act [1] and less often as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act) was a United States Act that aimed to restrict immigration by imposing literacy tests on immigrants, creating new categories of inadmissible persons, and barring immigration from the Asia–Pacific region.
A literacy test assesses a person's literacy skills: their ability to read and write. Literacy tests have been administered by various governments, particularly to immigrants. Between the 1850s [1] and 1960s, literacy tests were used as an effective tool for disenfranchising African Americans in the Southern United States.
In an effort to reduce immigration, congress passed the Immigration Act of 1917. This act added a literacy test for ages 16 and above. The literacy test required one to have basic reading comprehension in any language. [5] The modern day literacy test is similar, but it requires most to read, write, and be able to speak partial english. [6]
"Immigrants, the Literacy Test, and Quotas: Selected American History College Textbooks' Coverage of the Congressional Restriction of European Immigration, 1917–1929," in The History Teacher, v. 21 (1987), 41–51; Solomon, Barbara Miller. Ancestors and Immigrants: A Changing New England Tradition (1956), the standard history of the League
Restricted immigration from Asia by creating an "Asiatic Barred Zone" and introduced a literacy test for all immigrants over sixteen years of age, with certain exceptions for children, wives, and elderly family members. Pub. L. 64–301: 1917 Jones–Shafroth Act
In general, immigrants become eligible for citizenship after five years of residence. Many do not immediately apply, or do not pass the test on the first attempt. This means that the counts for visas and the counts for naturalization will always remain out of step, though in the long run the naturalizations add up to somewhat less than the visas.
The AFL also favored the passage of a literacy test as a requirement for an immigrant's entry to the United States to reduce the number of unskilled and presumably-uneducated immigrants admitted into the country. [1]
An advocate of scientific racism and eugenics, he is known today primarily for his role in lobbying for the passage of what became the Immigration Act of 1917, which created a federal framework for restricting immigration—by imposing a literacy test, levying an $8 charge on every immigrant, and creating a massive exclusion zone with the ...