Poll Tax Receipt

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I. Artifact Name

Poll Tax Receipt

II. Image

Smithsonian Institute of American History

III. Description of the Artifact and It's Significance

Poll tax receipt

Poll taxes required citizens to pay a fee to register to vote. These fees kept many poor African Americans, as well as poor whites, from voting. The poll tax receipts displayed here is from Alabama.
A poll or head tax is one imposed on individuals by state and local governments as a pre-condition to exercise the right to vote. This was especially true in the South during and after Reconstruction where poll taxes were asociated with racial and class restrictions and used as a means of circumventing the 14th Amendment. This form of taxation gradually fell out of favor by the mid-20th century, but it was not until the adoption of the 24th Amendment in 1964 that poll taxes were made illegal as a prerequisite for voting in federal elections. The 1966 Supreme Court case Harper verses Virginia Board of Elections extended that same prohibition to all elections.

IV. Date and Place (Go to the Timeline and enter in this information as well as here!)

Birmingham Alabama, April 9th, 1896

V. Multimedia Found on the Internet

VI. Curators (First Name, Last Initial)

Lynne, W
Mark, C