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Racial & Ethnic Relations in America

Poll tax

by Robert Jacobs

Poll taxes existed in the United States from the earliest colonial times. They were usually quite small and did not act to discourage many people from voting. In the years following the Civil War (1861–65) and Reconstruction (1865–77), the poll tax system was refined in the southern states for the purpose of disfranchising black voters. The tax remained small, but it had to be paid during every election in which the potential voter might have voted. This tax effectively disfranchised nearly all black voters for almost a century. Because the election laws in the United States are made by state governments, a constitutional amendment was needed to do away with poll taxes. In 1964, the Twenty-Fourth Amendment abolished the payment of such taxes as a condition for voting in federal elections.

Receipt for payment of poll tax, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, 1917 (the $1 tax has the purchasing power of $18.69 today). By State of Louisiana, Parish of Jefferson.

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Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Jacobs, Robert. "Poll Tax." Racial & Ethnic Relations in America, edited by Kibibi Mack-Shelton & Michael Shally-Jensen, Salem Press, 2017. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=RACE2E_0685.
APA 7th
Jacobs, R. (2017). Poll tax. In K. Mack-Shelton & M. Shally-Jensen (Eds.), Racial & Ethnic Relations in America. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Jacobs, Robert. "Poll Tax." Edited by Kibibi Mack-Shelton & Michael Shally-Jensen. Racial & Ethnic Relations in America. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2017. Accessed December 14, 2025. online.salempress.com.