Poll taxes were not meant to keep the poor from voting, although that was a unintended consequence. Poll taxes were used to keep African-Americans from voting. What made the practice especially egregious was the fact that many Southern states passed laws that exempted most whites from paying the poll tax.
Chat with our AI personalities
Deny African Americans the right to vote.
Tools to disfranchise African Americans.
Yes, both were instituted to deny certain groups the right to vote.
A poll tax was a fee required to vote. A person who who could not or did not want to pay the fee could not vote. Poll taxes discouraged ex-slaves from voting.
Poor whites and African Americans