Despite election violence and fraud, African Americans were still winning numerous local seats. Corrections? The poll-tax language was not completely stricken from its Constitution until Amendment 85 in 2008. Thus, the Twenty-fourth Amendment was proposed (by Sen. Spessard Lindsey Holland of Florida) and ratified to eliminate an economic instrument that was used to limit voter participation.
[15] Some states also continued to exercise discrimination in the application of literacy tests.
A discharge petition was able to force the bill to be considered, and the House passed the bill 254–84. President Harry S. Truman established the President's Committee on Civil Rights, which among other issues investigated the poll tax.
24 Democrats and 15 Republicans approved an end to debate, while 7 non-southern Democrats and 7 Republicans joined the 19 Southern Democrats in opposition. President Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke out against the tax. These were struck down in 1966 by the US Supreme Court decision in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections (1966), which ruled poll taxes unconstitutional even for state elections. All voters were required to pay the poll tax, but in practice it most affected the poor. [14] States that had maintained the poll tax were more reserved. The amendment was subsequently ratified by the following states: The following states have not ratified the amendment: Arkansas effectively repealed its poll tax for all elections with Amendment 51 to the Arkansas Constitution at the November 1964 general election, several months after this amendment was ratified. Section 1—The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.
Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). The state of Virginia accommodated the amendment by providing an "escape clause" to the poll tax. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO BAN THE USE OF POLL TAX AS A REQUIREMENT FOR VOTING IN FEDERAL ELECTIONS", "S.J. Several state-level initiatives repealed poll taxes during this period for two reasons: firstly that they encouraged corruption since wealthy persons could and would pay other people's poll taxes;[3][4] secondly, because they discouraged white voting more than many populist Southern politicians desired. It includes a lot of questions about the United States, but look out for a few about Australia too. The Georgia legislature did make a last-second attempt to be the 38th state to ratify. It said these violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. [12] Spessard Holland, a conservative Democrat from Florida, introduced the amendment to the Senate. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. It further ruled that a tax on voting did not amount to a violation of privileges or immunities protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. The Georgia Senate quickly and unanimously passed it, but the House did not act in time. The amendment was proposed by Congress to the states on August 27, 1962, and was ratified by the states on January 23, 1964. At the time, five states maintained poll taxes which disproportionately affected African-American voters: Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas.
The Twenty-fourth Amendment (Amendment XXIV) of the United States Constitution prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax. He felt that he needed Southern Democratic votes to pass New Deal programs and did not want to further antagonize them. Such evidence might open the door to a successful Twenty-Fourth Amendment challenge. United States House of Representatives: History, Art, & Archives, Origins & Development: From the Constitution to the Modern House, Joint Meetings, Joint Sessions, & Inaugurations, Presidents, Vice Presidents, & Coinciding Sessions of Congress, Foreign Leaders and Dignitaries Who Have Addressed the U.S. Congress, Individuals Who Have Lain in State or Honor, Calendars of the House of Representatives, Search Historical Highlights of the House, Chief Administrative Officers of the House, John W. McCormack Annual Award of Excellence to Congressional Employees, House Members Who Became U.S. Supreme Court Justices, House Members Who Received Electoral College Votes, Asian and Pacific Islander Americans in Congress, Jeannette Rankin’s Historic Election: A Century of Women in Congress, Joseph H. Rainey: 150 Years of Black Americans Elected to Congress, Campaign Collectibles: Running for Congress, Electronic Technology in the House of Representatives, The People’s House: A Guide to Its History, Spaces, and Traditions, An Annual Outing: The Congressional Baseball Game, Florence Kahn: Congressional Widow to Trailblazing Lawmaker, Mace of the U.S. House of Represen- tatives, The Long Struggle for Representation: Oral Histories of African Americans in Congress, National History Day 2021: Communication in History, Time for a Tour: Visiting the People’s House, Researching the House: Other Primary Sources, Explore Official House Records Related to Constitutional Amendments, https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1951-2000/The-24th-Amendment/.
Still, little occurred during the 1950s. It was proposed by the U.S. Congress on August 27, 1962, and was ratified by the states on January 23, 1964. Southern states of the former Confederate States of America adopted poll taxes in laws of the late 19th century and new constitutions from 1890 to 1908, after the Democratic Party had generally regained control of state legislatures decades after the end of Reconstruction, as a measure to prevent African Americans and often poor whites from voting.
[2], From 1900 to 1937, such use of the poll tax was nearly ignored by the federal government.
[5], The issue remained prominent, as most African Americans in the South were disenfranchised. Southern politicians tried to re-frame the debate as a constitutional issue, but private correspondence indicates that black disenfranchisement was still the true concern. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. Subsequent litigation related to potential discriminatory effects of voter registration requirements has generally been based on application of this clause. The tenor of the debate changed in the 1940s. By 1902, all eleven states of the former Confederacy had enacted a poll tax, many within new constitutions that contained other provisions as barriers to voter registration, such as literacy or comprehension tests administered subjectively by white workers.
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Such policies were bolstered by the 1937 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Breedlove v. Suttles, which upheld a Georgia poll tax. The amendment was proposed by Congress to the states on August 27, 1962, and was ratified by the states on January 23, 1964. Use of the poll taxes by states was held to be constitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States in the 1937 decision Breedlove v. Suttles.
[21] In the 1965 Supreme Court decision Harman v. Forssenius, the Court unanimously found such measures unconstitutional. Members of the anti-poll tax movement laid low during the anti-Communist frenzy of the period; some of the main proponents of poll tax abolition, such as Joseph Gelders and Vito Marcantonio, had been committed Marxists.[11]. Ratified January 23, 1964. On this date in 1962, the House passed the 24th Amendment, outlawing the poll tax as a voting requirement in federal elections, by a vote of 295 to 86. However, Roosevelt's favored liberal Democrats in the South lost in the 1938 primaries to the reigning conservative Southern Democrats, and he backed off the issue. (November 09, 2020), Office of the HistorianOffice of Art and Archives As such, issues related to whether burdens on voting are equivalent to poll taxes in discriminatory effect have usually been litigated on Equal Protection grounds since. When the 24th Amendment was ratified in 1964, five states still retained a poll tax: Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas and Virginia. This measure was expected to decrease the number of legal voters.
Twenty-fourth Amendment, amendment (1964) to the Constitution of the United States that prohibited the federal and state governments from imposing poll taxes before a citizen could participate in a federal election. Poll taxes, combined with grandfather clauses and intimidation, effectively prevented African Americans from …
The 24th amendment was important to the Civil Rights Movement as it ended mandatory poll taxes that prevented many African Americans. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. The Twenty-Fourth Amendment does. [19] The following states ratified the amendment: Ratification was completed on January 23, 1964. His administration urged Congress to adopt and send such an amendment to the states for ratification. Omissions?
A 1939 bill to abolish the poll tax in federal elections was tied up by the Southern Block, lawmakers whose long tenure in office from a one-party region gave them seniority and command of numerous important committee chairmanships. 24th Amendment; 24th Amendment Primary tabs. Mississippi's Attorney General, Joseph Turner Patterson, complained about the complexity of two sets of voters – those who had paid their poll tax and could vote in all elections, and those who had not and could vote only in federal elections.
Passage of poll taxes began in earnest in the 1890s, as Democrats wanted to prevent another Populist-Republican coalition.
[16][17] The amendment was submitted to the states on September 24, 1962, after it passed with the requisite two-thirds majorities in the House and Senate. But it was not until 1966 that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6–3 in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections that poll taxes for any level of elections were unconstitutional.
In lieu of paying the poll tax, a prospective voter could file paperwork to gain a certificate establishing a place of residence in Virginia.
It was proposed on August 27, 1962, and ratified on January 23, 1964.
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