How did poll taxes place limits on African-Americans?

Answer 1

In 1964 the Twenty-fourth Amendment prohibited the use of poll taxes. In 1965, the Voting Rights Act directed the Attorney General to enforce the right to vote for African Americans. The 1965 Voting Rights Act created a significant change in the status of African Americans throughout the South.

Answer 2

Poll taxes arose in some southern states following the end of the Civil War and the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment to the US Constitution in 1870. That amendment extended the right to vote to all male citizens, regardless of race or color. The poll tax laws generally did not specify that citizens of a certain race had to pay the levy. However, they were written in such a way that, while technically they applied to all voters, "grandfather" exemptions were offered to those who could demonstrate that they or their fathers or grandfathers had voted in elections during and prior to the Civil War. Obviously, since blacks and native Americans could not legally vote in those states before 1870, they were excluded en masse from the "grandfather" exemptions.

The last of these state poll taxes -- Mississippi's -- was overturned by the US Supreme Court in 1966.

Answer 3

They keeped many African Americans from voting.

Answer 4

They limited the number of people to those who could afford to vote.

Answer 5

The blacks couldn't afford the tax