![\"white](\"https:\/\/theradicalagenda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Copy-of-PIN-SET-14B-2021-1000x1500-57-683x1024.png\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nWhat are Poll Taxes? <\/h1>\n\n\n\n
Amendment 15 was ratified on February 3, 1870, allowing freed African-American men the right to vote. In response, Southern lawmakers created a poll tax, which was a price someone had to pay<\/a>, sometimes for consecutive years, before they were allowed to cast their vote. Records of poll taxes show receipts of $2 charges in order to vote (equivalent to about $48 in 2025). This charge was cost-prohibitive for sharecroppers who paid most of their income to the landowner as rent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While this fee applied to everyone, those who could prove their ancestors had voted prior to the Civil War (which obviously did not apply to many African-Americans) were able to have their poll tax waived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The poll taxes disenfranchised thousands of voters, conveniently keeping power focused to the few and perpetuating white supremacy. And it didn\u2019t stop at paying money, some states also required voters to pass literacy and other tests before they were allowed access to their civil right to vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 24th<\/sup> Amendment was ratified on January 23, 1964, which made poll taxes illegal. However, as with all laws rooted in white supremacy, some states found or created loopholes in order to avoid allowing everyone equal rights. In 1966 the Supreme Court of the United States ruled on Harper vs Virginia Board of Elections. Their ruling clearly stated that poll taxes were illegal at every level, citing it was a violation of the 14th<\/sup> amendment equal protection clause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While we don\u2019t have official poll taxes today, white supremacists continue to create loopholes meant to disenfranchise voters by making it more difficult to vote. Politicians continue to work to redline districts, limiting polling places in lower income areas, and requiring specific types of identification that cost money to obtain are all ways that make voting harder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some states require all felony fines to be paid prior to restoring voting rights as well. While this might sound like it makes sense, it\u2019s quickly clear that it\u2019s a cheap disguise for a poll tax once you realize that the fines have nothing to do with the actual felony \u2013 they are simply additional charges the state or county adds<\/a>. The Fees and Fines Justice Center estimated that in 2016, these extraneous fees have disenfranchised over six million voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhen Did Poll Taxes Become Illegal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Are There Still Poll Taxes Today?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/theradicalagenda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/the-new-jim-crow.jpg\")
<\/figure>