Existing comment:
Pay to Vote?
Augustus Johnson argued in his telegram to Congress that the poll tax -- a fee required to vote -- was intended to prevent African Americans from voting rather than to collect revenue. The 24th Amendment prohibiting poll taxes for Federal elections was ratified in 1964. Two years later, the Supreme Court ruled that state poll taxes were also unconstitutional.
Telegram from Augustus C. Johnson in favor of abolition of the poll tax, May 16, 1962, Records of the U.S. House of Representatives |