"Literacy tests did not begin as a racist tool. Connecticut adopted the first literacy requirement for voting in 1855 as part of its new state constitution, with the stated goal of preventing voter fraud and ensuring voters could understand ballot questions. Massachusetts, Maine, and several other Northern states followed with similar requirements in the decades that followed."
https://www.cuip.org/what-were-literacy-tests-for-voting/
A test will inherently disenfranchise a group, that's the point though; disenfranchise the least intelligent and easiest to manipulate across the population. Like I said, I'd rather we just educated people better and they weren't so easily manipulated but how do you deal with existing adults who will never be able to meaningfully detect bias and propaganda? I don't think there's a correct answer.